How to Place Well on Google after Panda / Penguin Era
There is no magic wand, no secret recipe, or for that matter
special protocol you should follow or buy to have your website appear in the
top unpaid search results on Google. In fact, do too much of optimization for
placement and you’ll run right into Google’s “over optimization” filter and be
dropped back as much as 50 to 100 pages in the search results.
So what is a website owner to do? First off, the bottom-line is
you can’t scam or buy your way to top placement on Google.com. In this new
world of post Panda and Penguin algorithm updates, it is readable natural
content that Google wants; no keyword dense content, no heavy use of keyword
phrases in the heading and subheading tags, and certainly no aggressive link
building strategies.
Matt
Cutts, the Google representative, says this about organic
placement:
“Key
phrases don’t have to be in their original form. We do a lot of synonym work so
that we can find good pages that don’t happen to use the same words as the user
typed.”
“People
can overdo it [using meta tags and headings that are keyword dense] to the
point that we consider it keyword stuffing, and it hurts. I would just make
sure you do it in natural ways where regular people aren’t going to find it
stiff or artificial. That tends to be what works best.”
“Never
sacrifice the quality of your copy for the sake of the search engines. It’s
just not necessary. The next time you write a new page of copy, test this
approach to writing for the engines and see if you get as good (or better)
results than before. I’m betting you’ll be pleasantly surprised.”
Twitter
and Google+ Are Important
Because
Google+ is a Google tool and is being integrated into every Google property, to
not be actively be involved in Google+ and +1′s, which are part of Google’s new
placement focus, is a missed opportunity.
Twitter
links and activity are indexed and shown in Google’s search results unlike
those of Facebook. If you have to choose a social network to be involved within
this new world, choose Twitter over Facebook!
Why is Google+ So Important?
Why is Google+ So Important?
Based
on this new focus for Google, you need to start flowing through search and
social activity into your Google+ and +1 bank. If you don’t have accounts,
Google can’t tie the activity to you specifically.
Let’s
Talk About What Google+ and +1′s Are
Google+
is a social platform. It is not like Facebook but more like Facebook and
Twitter combined. However, it is much more important than any of the social
networks we know and use now.
You could
consider Google+ like a voting and popularity network but one that has the ear
of Google. Anything you do on Google+ will most certainly impact your website’s
organic placement and Web Visibility in the future. Google has said as much in
their releases. Google has additionally stated that it will be showing social
results from your Google+ network in their Google.com personalized search
results.
What
this means is that for people and businesses that embrace Google+ early and
start building their network now, there will be strong benefits for their
updates and links. This activity will be shown in your own personal and
expanded network’s search/social results.
+1′s
are Google’s version of votes. If you like a page, like an ad, like a blog
post, like a Google+ comment, you vote it up using a +1. What is crucial to
understand is that a +1 is tied to your Google+ activity. These +1 votes will
impact your visibility and placement on Google in the new Google Search Plus
Your World results.
Google
Search Plus Your World Is the New Face of Google
In mid
January, Google rolled out an important change to their search index. They
named it Google Search Plus Your World. In my industry we call it Search Plus.
Google stated that they will be using activity, updates, Google+ activity, and
+1 activity in the search results that they deliver to your personally and to
those in your Google+ network.
What is
interesting is that even if you are logged out of your Google account, Google
is still tracking your activity. Of additional importance is the announcement
that the social related results that will be shown in the Google.com index are
personally selected for you and WILL contain Google+ activity across your
Google+ social network.
That
means if you start building your network now, your information and website
could be appearing in search results for a very broad network of readers and
potential prospects. As this activity comes from your personal network, just
like a word-of-mouth referral, links to you and your profile will most likely
carry more authority and legitimacy in the eyes of potential clients. Everyone
weights a reference by a friend about a business more than a written review
found randomly on the Web. This will be the real impact of Google+ and +1′s in the
very near future.
Why Is
This So Important?
All of
the information in this newsletter is important because the business that is
driving these changes is Google. Because Google owns 65% of the online search
market, to be positioned well on Google means taking full advantage of what
Google considers important.
It is
critical you understand that Google+ is not Facebook. Google considers Google+
and +1′s integral to it’s new face of search and how search results are shaped
and delivered. These new Google offerings are very important and should be
embraced quickly and completely for your future organic placement benefit.
Placement
is More Than Twitter and Google+ – There Are Still Links to Factor In
Sorry,
you can’t just stop with Twitter and Google+ and think that you’ll garner
organic placement, you’ve got to think about links too. But smart links! For
most clients the easiest way to build links naturally (that is important to
Google) over time is by blogging. Google considers each blog post as if it were
a new page on your website – but a page that is on one topic – and so may
easily place in the search results for that topic.
If the
page gets indexed, it can lead readers from your blog right into your website
and can even improve the stickiness of your website. There is no downside, in
my point of view, with blogging. It is not unusual for a website that blogs
three days a week to build 156 new website pages and grow links to over
thousand in a year.
Conclusion
I want
to reiterate that there is no magic formula to getting organic search placement
on Google.
What I
do know is that Google likes content-rich authority websites that have a large
number of pages and have an older established domain name.
Google
likes a natural slow progression of links pointing to a website and blogging
works great for growing these inbound links slowly.
Google
likes social exchange through Twitter and tweets are included in Google’s
search index.
Google
loves Google+ and Google +1 activity. In fact so much so, that there is a
special section in your site’s Google Webmaster control panel where Google
tracks these and even shows the search impact.
The
bottom-line is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to grow and build
organic search placement, but there are still some very smart things you can do
if you follow what Google considers important.
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