Technical SEO Audit of Your WebsiteYou need to make sure that you have covered the basics when you consider your search engine optimization approach. There is a great deal to the content marketing and SEO puzzle and you need to ensure that you have the essentials covered before moving to more complex issues.
It may be time for you to conduct an SEO Audit of your website.
Business and Content CompetitorsThere are many preconceived notions about what can be achieved with a well designed SEO program. Sometimes the visions of what can be achieved are not realistic. Before a company allocates substantial resources there needs to be an effort to understand the competitive landscape.
Internet MarketingEven though there is nothing static about it we can count on one thing as a constant. This constant is the persistent effort by search engines to improve the search results that they present to their customer – the people who are searching – you and me.
Words, Words, Words
What is a Shakespeare play made of?
Hamlet gives us the answer – When Polonius asks Hamlet what he is reading Hamlet answers “Words, words, words.”. A Shakespeare play is made of words. Much of our content will also be made of words. We may lace in a graphic or a photo or even a video but much of what we create will be content composed of words.
Words work! Words work well! Words have worked well for centuries. Can we be inspired by Shakespeare to elevate our wording when we create our content?
Analyze Your CompetitorsImagine you can out-perform your competition in search and reap the benefits. The benefits are more traffic and if your content is designed well then this will result in more sales and more business.
Does the Google’s Link Operator Tell You Anything Meaningful?
The simple answer a NO! Typing link:www.yoursite.com into Google’s search box often won’t even show you any links. It certainly will not show you all your links. When it does show you some, they’re usually not the best ones.
Don’t bother to use this command because it is mis-leading at the very best. While there are some helpful tools that can find some backlinks, there is no foolproof method for finding out about all the links that point to your site or to your competitors’ sites. The good news is, just because you can’t find them all doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Keep making a great site with great content that delights your visitors and also continue to create fresh web content. Then work to get the word out in as many ways as you can.
Keep building your link profile and link network. Do not worry too much if you cannot generate an accurate list of all your links. As you create great web content and gain in-coming links you will see your site rise in search and you will see your traffic grow and this will be proof enough.
Can A Small Business Survive Panda and Penguin?To me the big factor with Panda was a major attempt by Google to define authoritative content.
Penguin was clearly a major attempt by Google to refine it algorithm as it relates to in-coming links to a website.
Can a small business properly deal with this heavy scrutiny?
Let me discuss Panda. The entire issue is related to the quality of your on-site materials. If you have “thin” content or duplicate content then you may be affected negatively by Panda. It is natural for Google to want to present the most authoritative content to its searching audience. If your content is thin and of little value or depth then you run the risk of being penalized. If your content is not original and Google can detect the original source then your page (or site) can be negatively impacted. If you have duplicate (but non-original) content then your page is clearly not the authority.
The lesson is to create (and to continue to create) high-quality web content that delights your website visitors. Google wants to present websites that delight. If you are a small business then you have the ability to delight and you should make every effort to do so.
In my next few posts I will explain more of what Google is doing with the Penguin and how to not get penalized.
If you go onto any internet marketing forum you will see this every time. People freak out when they see their search engine position drop. There is no need to panic but rather there is every need to think about the situation and map out a plan. There are many factors that cause a site to move in search position. There are algorithms changes. There is the new site “honeymoon” period where their websites rank very well at the beginning, but after a couple of weeks they settle in the search results… usually at a much lower ranking, again, this is natural.
Also, never underestimate your competition. They may have taken some search engine position building action. To move up in search position means that you must dislodge someone else. They may not simply throw in the towels and give up.
If your website have age and have dropped in rankings, you may need to work harder to get your position back. You may need to update your content more often, you may need to build more backlinks or you may need to re-evaluate your SEO strategy. Google’s algorithm is changing frequently these days so it’s important to find out what they want, and go give it to them.
With a good plan and then the implementation of that plan you can achieve good search engine position and maintain it.