The following post is brought to you by SEO Consultant Shane Hunter @ eSEOconsultant.org:
A person who is trying to optimize his or her website for search engines should be aware of the various algorithm updates that Google is making. Google’s updates have greatly affected many sites across the web, as some sites which previously had excellent ratings have been greatly downgraded. On the other hand, some sites that have previously had low rankings have gotten a boost. Following is an outline of how the changes affect one’s on site SEO; however, a person running an online business will want to get the help of an SEO consultant before making drastic changes to his or her website.
Link Building
Link building is a key SEO principal. In times past, the more links a site had, the better ratings it received. This is no longer true. Google is now placing a premium on links from established, high ranking websites and downgrading websites that have submitted their links to “link farms.” Link farm sites are simply sites that, for a fee, will post a person’s website link all over the web. A webmaster will now want to avoid link farms at all costs. A site should only have links from relevant sites.
Article Submission Websites
Article submission sites allow a person to submit articles on any given topic. Along with the article a person is allowed to include a link to his or her site. Some of these sites even allow a webmaster to include site links inside the article itself; not just at the end. Submitting articles to article sites is still a good way to promote one’s website. Webmasters who have submitted articles to various services will not see their sites automatically downgraded. However, one should note that this SEO tactic is no longer as effective as it used to be. Google has downgraded nearly all article sites, including popular sites such as Ezine. Furthermore, a webmaster that submits the same article to more than one service will see his or her website downgraded in Google. In short, Google’s new algorithm changes crack down on duplicate content.
Google +
Google + is a new addition to the world of social networking. It is not nearly as popular as Facebook but it does have millions of users. Google has made mention of the fact that it intends to use the Google + button as a way of ranking a site; a site that has a high number of “+1” ratings will get high rankings in Google. For this reason, a webmaster should make sure that he or she has a Google +1 button in a prominent location on his or her site. Furthermore, opening a Google + business page is also a good idea. Google has made basic changes to its algorithm, which determines how well any given site will rank in the Google search engine. Furthermore, one can expect regular changes in the future, as Google strives to weed out spam sites and give genuine, well made sites a high ranking. Working with an SEO consulting firm can help one to stay abreast of these changes and edit his or her website accordingly so that the site will continue to have good Google rankings.
