Protect Your Site from Search Engine Updates

The search engines are constantly updating and tweaking their algorithms to provide their customers (searchers) with the best possible experience. Think about it. If Google search results were crappy, people wouldn’t use the service, meaning that Google wouldn’t be making a profit. Search engine algorithms are built to think like people that are searching. Using a number of factors, the search engines determine whether a site is relevant and if it’s valuable. If it’s not, it won’t appear prominently in a search result. Some algorithm changes may go nearly unnoticed, while others shake the internet marketing world and cause mass hysteria (Panda, anyone?). The search engine algorithms are a mystery, but there are 5 things that you can do to improve your chances of search engine survival:

Focus on quality
If the content that you share online isn’t “up to snuff”, it’s not even worth it. The search engine algorithms are smart and will notice spelling errors and flimsy content that took 5 minutes or $5 to create. Content is a huge part of SEO and online marketing in general, but it needs to be good.
Diversify your approach
There are plenty of ways to market your business online. It starts with your website, but in order to be successful online you need to build your online real estate in other ways by participating in social networking and blog communities, publishing content like E-books, whitepapers, articles, and guides, submitting newsworthy press releases, producing videos and podcasts, and joining industry associations. Relying too heavily on only one or two tactics leaves you vulnerable to a search engine update.
Get busy in social
The search engines have admitted that social signals now play a role in the ranking algorithm. When a link is shared frequently in social media, it is an obvious indicator of trust. Social media continues to gain ground and it doesn’t seem like this trend will be changing anytime soon. Creating a strong social media strategy that is based on communication and sharing of good content is necessary.
Avoid over-optimization
SEO isn’t spammy. Over-optimization is a different story. While it’s important to include relevant keywords in your online content, you don’t want to include too many. Not only will it turn readers off, but the search engines will pick up on it and penalize you accordingly.
Build the right links
Ten quality links from relevant sources are much better than 100 links from random, low-quality sites across the web. The search engines consider a site’s link portfolio when determining rank, but it’s not a numbers game. It’s easy to spot spammy links that were obviously paid for.
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