On Monday, May 13, 2013, Matt Cutts released a very
interesting video to the Google Webmaster Help YouTube channel. The video,
titled What should we wait for in the next few months in terms of SEO for
Google?, covered a lot of ground, including upcoming changes to Penguin, Panda,
SERP clustering, hacked sites, and Author Authority.
Give a look to the video for yourself below:
With so many areas being affected, let’s look at the best
ways for you to protect against the upcoming changes.
Audit Your Links
The original Google Penguin update hammered sites that had insistently
built links in the past. Most of those websites have not yet recovered, and
some of them never will. By labeling the next major update as Penguin 2.0, Matt
is purposely refusing to split hairs. This has the look of a significant
upheaval for anyone still trying to game the system with any link they can get.
He alludes to going “a little deeper” and it “having a little more impact.”
Don’t let the word “little” fool you – this is “a little” deeper than something
that caused ripples across the internet.
Paid link schemes are clearly a goal for the next round.
Google showed a modicum of constraint in the first wave by only penalizing
obvious schemes such as BuildMyRank (recently renamed as HP Backlinks).
Now, they have had over a year to root out anyone else
playing the same game. Common sense suggests that they will set their sights on
a much wider range of paid link services this go around.
The smart webmaster is pausing any paid link gaining efforts
and doing a detailed audit of their existing link inventory.
Will this slow momentum? Yes, temporarily.
But will it help avoid further headaches? Probably, but it’s
best to be safe.
Most of all hold your SEO provider’s feet to the fire. If
you don’t already know how they are acquiring links on your behalf, have them
share and defend their link acquisition strategy. Be sure you are both
comfortable that this strategy is in line with white hat SEO practices and
Google’s quality guidelines. As Matt says in the video, the best way to keep
away from penalty is to play by the rules.
Get Off Spammy Directories and Blog Networks
Although it was not overtly stated, we can be pretty convinced
that Google will penalize or deindex more blog networks and low quality
directories. This is not a tidal wave you want to be caught up in. Keep in mind
that this piece of the original update was a manual penalty. I don’t know how
long they had been working on it before it went live, but we do know that they
have now had at least 13 months to recognize additional sites to penalize.
When auditing your links, pay special attention to
directories and blog networks. Start the procedure of removing links from low
authority, spammy sites that have no vetting process at time of submission.
If you find one that charges a fee for being listed but has
no approval process, move them to the top of the list for removal request, and
later disavow if needed. This is the correct profile that Google went after
last April.
Change Your Link Building Practices
With Penguin 2.0 looking like a very big deal, force the
issue on link building practices today. As Matt advises, follow the rules and
you should be fine. We have seen many columns about Link Earning rather than
Link Building. This approach takes much more effort and time, but it also
insulates you against surprises such as a major slap from Google.
Once your domain is penalized, it is likely too late. The
best course of action is to stay away from it altogether.
Embrace Quality Content Marketing
The backbone of Link Earning is a hot topic today: Content
Marketing.
Yes, you need site authority. But that is nowhere near the
end of the story. Google is extending authority to authors and even publishers,
both of which go beyond the website to the entity.
In preparing to kick off a content campaign, be sure to have
the necessary markup in place to establish yourself as an author or publisher.
When starting to produce original content, hold yourself to
the highest standards. Look at what keywords might drive good traffic. Take
time to brainstorm high interest and engaging topics.
Write with passion and tell a story. Make us want to read
your work!
If you put back old school link building with content
marketing, there are multiple benefits.
Avoidance of penalties and surprises.
Increase in the number of pages indexed with the search
engines.
Rapid expanded keyword coverage, which will add to search
queries for which you will earn impressions.
You establish yourself and your brand as experts in your
chosen topic or field.
Clean Up Any Existing Problems
Just to be safe, be sure you are aware of any problems on
your site that need to be addressed. Google never outlines every single feature
of their algorithm updates and penalties in advance. The safe way to go is to
get everything in order before the updates hit.
Review every segment of your Google Webmaster Tools account.
If there are issues, take care of them now just to be safe.
How many pages are indexed?
Is your XML sitemap working right?
How many crawl errors are the spiders logging?
What keywords are you ranking for now?
Who links to you? Are they applicable and reputable?
What content is receiving these links?
Is your page load time and overall site performance
acceptable?
Is there a list of HTML improvements that you should be
fixing?
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