Google is consistently making changes to its top-ranking engine in the pursuit of better search for their audience. They are rooting out the counterfeiters and placing high-ranking value on real, valuable, content as well as community value and interaction. How are these modifications affecting your current SEO efforts, and more importantly, what do you need to do to make adjustments for the future?
Recent Changes
If you’re following the SEO experts from SearchEngineLand.com, you know that on May 25, 2012, Google rolled out its first targeted data update after the “Penguin” algorithm update. This confirmed that Penguin data was being processed outside of the main search index, much like Panda data. Google has described Penguin as an algorithm change that’s aimed at webspam and, more specifically, “sites that we believe are violating Google’s quality guidelines.”
This means that how marketers created and published search engine optimized content in the past has now become a thing of the past. It will surely put an end to Black Hat SEO, the obvious villainous practice of gaming the system by doing things to raise rankings that Google doesn’t want. But it also will put less emphasis on traditional White Hat practices. In a recent Forbes.com article, appropriately titled “The Death of SEO: The Rise of Social, PR, And Real Content,” contributing author Ken Krogue says:
What does Google want? They want relevant, real content on the internet that people want to read and tell other people about. If Google doesn’t bring you the most relevant content when you search they aren’t doing their job.
How to Evolve Your SEO Strategy
The recent Google changes are quickly and significantly altering the SEO landscape. You first need to recognize the need to enhance or change your current SEO and link-building programs to incorporate strategies to meet the requirements of today’s new SEO standards.
Ironically, Google’s growing affinity for highly relevant, credible content is nothing new to Responsory’s PR and SEO pros. In fact, our results-driven ePR methodology is a perfect match.
- Choose one or more high-growth-potential areas of expertise (e.g., a service or product).
- Identify one to three subject matter experts for each area of expertise to support credible content development.
- Brainstorm list of hot topics related to the featured area of expertise and the challenges faced by your target audience.
- Research and build highly customized online news and blog media list. (Discovery will include a review of where competitors are publishing their expertise.)
- Write editorial-style pitch summary for each hot topic. Prioritize and assign one or more media outlets for each pitch summary.
- Add or alter featured web pages or publish a blog post for each area of expertise to tie your pitch directly to your site. Publish the pages or posts to create a URL to share with media contacts.
- Make contact with each media outlet with pitch summary and URL. Once media interest is gained, write the editorial piece or support the media contact/editor to complete the piece (coordinate interview with subject matter expert, provide additional information, etc.)
- Track placements and URL mentions; measure traffic to URLs, URLs indexed by Google and Google position.
- Repurpose published placements, continue brainstorming new hot topics, building media list and pitching media, and tracking placements and URLs.
- Add new high-growth-potential area(s) to continue and build upon this initiative.
At Responsory, we’re encouraging our SEO-minded clients to plan ahead to invest in a long-term, aggressive program focused on continually developing and publishing real, valuable, relevant content that their audiences want. To accomplish this, we put strategies in place that will grow their internal thought leaders to where they can add value in the minds’ of target audiences and to their organizations’ brand positioning in the market. Then we will follow our ePR publishing process, involving proven internal SEO practices, to make sure this high-value content is found and sees the light of day. Business training is an inalienable part of it. Finally, we take the time necessary to make it so compelling that the target news and blogging communities talk about it and share it.
True SEO practitioners are turning more and more to genuine content, credible PR and real social media community support to achieve organic optimization success. New services from Edge Marketing, advises you on how to choose an SEO company that meet these new standards. We’d like to help your organization enhance its SEO strategy to accommodate this evolution. Give us a call to talk about how our ePR approach can work for you.
