Is SEO Dead With All The Google Updates?

Google Panda and Google Penguin updates have had a seismic effect on getting websites to rank in Google and in Search Engine Optimisation circles.

2012 is an important date in the Mayan Calender, apparently is is the year humanity comes to an end. Well for many people who have online business, or depend on Google for a living, their world had ENDED. In 2012 its has become a LOT harder to rank in Google - fact!

Back in the day, pre 2011 it was EASY. You could put together loads of simple sites, whack some half-assed content on, throw a lot of back links at it - JOB DONE!!

But that was very much against the spirit of what GOOGLE was trying to do. Google used to think a lot of backlinks meant people MUST find that site useful after all, why are people linking back to it. Google saw it as a "vote" of confidence in your site, and so up the rankings the site would go.

If a site had a lot of references to a specific keyword phrase, if it was in the domain name, or in the title post - then, according to "old" Google, then it must be relevant.

So what did internet marketing people do? Simple, just find Keyword phrases of value, set up sites, throw loads of random links. So called SEO experts and internet marketers basically boiled down the basics of how Google ranked sites, and just gamed it. Gave the Google machine and spiders what they wanted.

Then in 2011, Google hit back - big time. With the rise of Twitter and social media - what was current and in the news, there and then - is what people wanted. Google had to change, they had to create a search engine that kept up to date with events that were happening.

They also realised that people were taking the basic ranking factors at face value and just scraping content from article sites, throwing a gaziliion links at a site, and playing Google.

So in 2011 Google introduced the first of their MAJOR game changers. Google PANDA - and since then it has a number of updates:

"The change aimed to lower the rank of "low-quality sites" or "thin sites", and return higher-quality sites near the top of the search results"

This effected a number of well known Article Directories, with scraped and poor quality content.

Then on April 24, 2012 - they released... The Penguin! Not particularly vicious sounding names, but even more devastating than the original PANDA update. Penguin focussed on over Optimised sites - i.e. too much SEO work on a site, was penalised. Sites that had lots of back links using the SAME keyword phrase ANCHOR Text. I had sites effected by PENGUIN update, overnight.

"Google Penguin is a code name for a Google algorithm update that was first announced on April 24, 2012. The update is aimed at decreasing search engine rankings of websites that violate Google's Webmaster Guidelines by using black-hat SEO techniques, such as keyword stuffing, cloaking, participating in link schemes, deliberate creation of duplicate content, and others."

So if you add all these together, you can see it is almost an attack against everything most Affiliate Marketing courses teach!

So what can you do? What must you do?

I have always preached to my Internet Marketing Bootcamp students about QUALITY CONTENT, REGULAR CONTENT - and social media. What I recommend is:

Back linking, focus on high ranking back links, social media back links - and MOST IMPORTANT - DO NOT USE all the same ANCHOR TEXT. Mix it up a bit. Focus on a range of keywords phrases around your main niche- not just one. Become an authority site. Do SEO on all those keyword phrases. You will benefit from the traffic from a range of keywords rather than just one. Keep your site relevant and fresh Engage with people who interact on your social media sites and your main site. You need to be where the people are! Look at your site from a visitors point of view. Does it look good, easy to navigate, load fast. All the things that you like in sites, or impress you in other sites you see.

Hope you find these tips useful.

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