SEO or Search Engine Optimization isn’t dead. It’s just a field of technology that has to change along with the search engines and their protocols and procedures. This calls for keeping a finger on the pulse of what the search engines are validating and in this case it means quality is the best policy.
Yes, just like the old adage that honesty is the best policy, so does quality. Now more than ever, quality and honesty are the most successful approaches and there are millions of former top ranking websites, now wallowing at the bottom that can attest to this. Why? Because many of the old tactics that were dishonest or lacking in quality have been wiped out by the latest Google software algorithms.
Google had gotten tired of spammy and Black Hat website SEO and decided to combat it, full force. These changes have wreaked havoc across the SEO world as companies that had been riding high are now battling with clients whose websites are being crushed by the changes by Google. The loss in traffic and revenue and reputation can be irreversible, as Google is not being merciful.
Now, SEO companies have to go back to square one with all their clients and make corrections and that is painstaking and probably not profitable at all.
Today’s SEO minded marketer can see the right way to do things is to either clean up one’s act asap or if this is your first attempt at SEO, to do things that Google says are the safest bet.
First of all, a clean and professional website. No trick links or redirects, and other nonsense. Absolutely no Black Hat techniques. Tag everything correctly and relatively. Make sure contact information is prominent and clear and the site is very easy to navigate. Google wants their surfers to get the maximum benefit, the direct answer to their inquiries, not goof ups and money traps.
As far as links go, back links and all links have to be pertinent to the subject matter of your site and no links should go to, nor come from, disreputable sites, no matter how popular they are. No paid links and no webrings.
If you’re running ads on your site, those ads have to be clean. No traps or other foolishness. Make sure your social media links are prominent as well and get your surfers to engage. That shows Google that you’re important to the surfer and not just sitting around burning up time and traffic.
What’s happening regarding SEO is actually wondrous. It’s making sure that webmasters and marketers are creating websites that are actually of some use to surfers instead of just trapping them into a realm of upsales and absurd promotions. Google want’s their surfers to find real, living, honorable websites that perform a service, something of value to educate the public and entertain them, not just use and exploit them.
This pushes the creative envelope. Now SEO companies are going to have to tell their clients that they have to be creative, engaging, and expansive. No more of the keyword hunting and tricky techniques, but quality content that involves real copywriting from reliable professionals and not foreign writing mills that use keyword and keyphrase stuffing. Real videos and pics and not just links to cookie cutter YouTube compilations that are passed off as original content for that particular site.
So the battle is on for quality, originality, and honesty, and one had better jump on the bandwagon now before it’s too late.