With another week comes another Trademark Productions podcast. This week, we discuss how link building hasn’t gone away, Google Panda’s second birthday and a few other fun tech topics like Google Glass. Make sure to take a listen to learn more!
Links still provide ‘juice’
Despite the claims that “links are dead” or “dying,” the power of a good link shouldn’t be understated when it comes to SEO. The difference between links now in the past is that it’s not so much about “getting” links, it’s about having good material and content to encourage linking. That’s why it’s important your website has something to offer people. This could be an interesting blog post, a really creative infographic, a great photo or some other asset. These assets are crucial because they provide users with something they want to share.
People are links
One of the things we learned last October at PubCon in Vegas was that, because of social networks, people have become links. The more social shares your content has, the more reputable it seems to search engines–especially Google. The search giant uses social signals as a factor when determining how to rank a particular site. That’s why it’s so important that you are not only active in social media, but that you have something to offer your fan base.
Two years after Google Panda
It’s been just over two years since Google first unleashed its Panda algoritm on the web. Since then, many people have had to either a) reevaluate how they present content and SEO on their site or b) completely rewrite, repurpose or even scrap their content. Google’s objective with Panda was to provide the user with higher-quality search results by weeding out the sites that were just gaming the system by over-optimizing their content. This was one of Google’s first steps in becoming a human-first search engine. Now, a website has to be “human readable” in order to appear high in SERPs.
Content farms & footer keywords
Two of the things that Google tried to combat with Panda were content farms and poor on-page content. Content farms were websites that churned out a slew of SEO-friendly content that was specifically designed to get your site ranked for X, Y or Z. Now, in order to get “ranked,” your content has to be engaging, relevant and reputable. It’s made the SEO game a lot harder than it was before.
Remember when websites would have a list of keywords in their footer? That’s no longer acceptable under Panda. That practice was used to help a site have higher search visibility, but more often than not, they were lower-quality websites that didn’t provide users with the answers to their queries.
How to produce content under Panda
The phrase “Content is King” is more true now than ever before with Google. It’s absolutely essential to have high-quality content that’s not only engaging, but it has to be useful in some way. If you’re a website that specializes in selling vintage auto parts, write about old cars. Don’t publish blog posts or articles about something completely off-base like kitchen appliances. Keep your content cohesive and relevant. And most importantly, share it with people!
Take a listen!
Want to learn more about Google Panda and link building in today’s world? Listen to our podcast below! And don’t forget, if you have questions, don’t hesitate to leave us a comment.
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