Google's New Algorithm - Responding to the Challenge

It was a customer, or rather a potential customer, who alerted me to the recent change in Google's search engine algorithm.

I say this without (much) embarrassment, because Google changes its algorithms frequently, and usually the impact upon a service such as ours is negligible. After all we promote our clients from such a variety of angles that our work cannot fail to make an impact upon their search engine ratings.

But this one, it would seem, has a little more teeth to it and as such will impact upon our work by a factor of up to 12%, so it would be foolhardy not to pay it some heed.

According to Google: "This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites - sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful."

The main "victim" of such an update is likely to be dedicated article directories, some of which host literally millions of articles by independent authors that will usually feature inbound links to commercial websites with a view to improving their search engine recognition.

The first thing to understand is that this is not a "penalty" as such. Your website will not be hit by Google or any other search engine for having inbound links from articles featured by directories. If you think about it such a policy would open itself up to all sorts of abuse. All your competitors would need to do would be to create an external link into your site and they would blow your whole business out of the water.

The new algorithm would seem to work more along the lines of the mythical "duplicate content penalty", which likewise is not a penalty in the literal sense of the word.

What it will mean is that it will be more difficult than it was hitherto to get the article linking into your site onto the front pages of Google. More difficult, to a factor of 12%. Not by any means impossible.

Whilst this presents a challenge to authors such as myself I happen to believe that the changes to the Google algorithm represent a change for the better. If applied as it is surely intended, it will lead to an improvement in the overall quality of submitted articles and a shot across the bows for those people who produce high-volume, low-quality, semi-literate rubbish for the obvious purpose of upgrading their SEO ranking and absolutely nothing else.

It will render less effective the "spinning" software the purpose of which would appear to be to translate good English-language copy into gobbledegook for the purpose of providing "unique" content for each of a million low-grade article directories to which it is then submitted by robot.

It will mean that those article directories who boast high Google page rank as well as some kind of reputation for quality will raise their game still further, creating an aristocracy of talented authors whom they will showpiece in an attempt to convince Google and the other search engines that what they offer is quality content as opposed to mass-produced mindless pap.

The Middle Man's work has already gained the recognition of Ezine Articles, reckoned by most to be the world's leading article directory. We believe we are a photograph away as I write from achieving similar reward from certain other directories. We and our customers have nothing at all to fear from a raising of the bar when it comes to the quality of submitted articles.

More than ever it is important that businesses wishing to improve their Google rankings through the use of submitted articles - still by far the single most effective means of doing so - avail themselves of the services of somebody who does it properly, and does it well.

The Power Of Keywords

Over the last day or two The Middle Man's website has been attracting considerably more hits than it had done hitherto.

Our analytics reveal that a significant proportion of these were arriving through Google searches on a particular keyword - business middleman.

This is not a keyword that we have actively cultivated nor even, to be honest, actually recognised. It would simply appear that, for whatever reason, we have been catapulted towards the front of Google's rankings for this specific keyword and that it is one that is extremely popular.

Having been gifted this information we will now promote it vigorously alongside our other keywords in order to extract the maximum benefit from it.

This little anecdote serves to demonstrate the importance of keywords. Our own site has benefited from something like a 25% increase in traffic as a consequence of using one individual keyword, albeit in this instance inadvertently.

If your site is not paying attention to keywords you will not have been exploiting its true potential to drive traffic and generate custom.

The SEO Trilogy, Part Two - How To Generate Inbound Links

In my article The Rationale For Search Engine Optimisation I explained the thinking behind SEO. In a nutshell it is necessary that your website, as well as simply looking good, enjoys a constant stream of visitors if the product or service that you offer is going to sell, and sell good.

Understanding the concept inspires one to seek out ways of insuring that the quality inbound links you require in order to achieve respect from the search engines can be placed.

What do we mean by "quality"? Well Google, by some margin the largest and most widely used of all the search engines, operates a ranking system, assigning Page Rank to sites on the web using a complex system of algorithms to determine the relative worth of any particular website.

The precise formula used by Google is a closely guarded secret, and probably changes constantly. However it is known that the single biggest and most important factor in determining Google Page Rank is the existence of good inbound links.

Obviously if you are lucky enough to have friends in high places who will place your links on high performance websites commanding high Page Rank then you will benefit from their existence soon enough. For most of us though the best available option is to place links yourself whenever you can so as to persuade the search engines to notice you and to afford you respect.

One way of doing this is to write articles (just like this one) and place them at article directories that the search engines take notice of. If you take the trouble to identify the best keywords to use within the article, and in particular which to place as anchor text (keywords linking directly to your site) this will improve the chances of your site finding its way onto the front page of Google when a casual user types these words into a search engine.

Another method is to register your membership with well supported internet forums. Please don't be cynical about this, if you register with a forum provided for your use by somebody else it is reasonable that you should be expected to contribute to the discussions on that forum in a meaningful way. Posts as "Yeah" and "I agree" are usually deleted by the moderators of the forum within hours if not sooner. But usually just by registering your URL within your profile and, if permitted, by adding it to your signature, you will have generated a useful link. If the signature permits you to link using anchor text it becomes more useful still.

Thirdly, you can place links from social networking sites. Most people these days are familiar with Facebook and Twitter, but did you know that simply by optimising your Profile on both you leave a useful trail for the search engines to pick up? Include a sprinkling of carefully chosen keywords and there is a good chance that anybody searching for them will be directed to your Facebook or Twitter page.

However Facebook and Twitter are not the social networking sites around. There are literally hundreds of them around the web and although they do not enjoy the same recognition as these two giants they can also serve as a useful repository for inbound links. Some unfortunately use a "No Follow" instruction in the source to ensure the user does not benefit from your links but others do not, and these pages do help you to arouse search engine interest.

Of course this is all inevitably very time consuming even if your technical competence does extend to generating inbound links. This is where the dedicated SEO company comes into play. Here you will be able to delegate the task of building quality inbound links whilst you spend your time concentrating on developing your core business.

SEO companies vary massively both in terms of the service they offer and of the price they charge. You are entitled to assume that the higher the price the better the service but this is not always the case. A telephone number fee does not in itself guarantee that the SEO provider will do a great job or indeed any job on your behalf, and similarly a low-cost business promotion service need not mean a poor service.

If you wish to use an SEO company find out precisely what they are offering first, then keep them to it.

Search Engine Optimisation is essential in today's increasingly competitive and complex market, but you would do well to shop around and see what is best for you and what you feel comfortable with before committing.