It is not difficult to look back at newest
algorithm updates from Google and assess how each one has changed the role of
an SEO. In the simplest sense, Panda forced us to become better writers and
researchers. Penguin made us change the way we build links. Lately, though it
was less of an algorithm update and more of an infrastructure changes to
Google’s core algorithm, Hummingbird asked us to consider conversational search
queries in the content we produce.
Irrespective of how small an algorithm
update may be, the growth and development of an SEO’s liabilities can be traced
back through the history of updates. The fact that SEO is so reliant on updates
creates quite a bit of doubt in the industry. But hey, as SEOs we know that the
single thing that stays the same is that everything changes!
The only assurance is that things will be
different tomorrow.
Saying, SEOs role has changed in the last
five to 10 years is an understatement. SEOs are tasked with more every year and
the explanation of SEO has widened significantly. It’s become almost impracticable
to be a one-man (or woman) show. It needs a team with a number of different
skills to carry out quality SEO today.
How
SEO has Changed?
There was a time when SEO was firmly about
obtaining traffic to a website. It didn’t matter how it was done providing it
was completed.
That was a long time ago.
Today the job if of an SEO is much more
than drawing visitors. It’s about conversions, building a brand, having a
social media existence, and generating unique, superior quality content better
than anybody else in your industry.
Why is this happening? It’s easy – Google
wants it. Apart from making money, Google wants its users to get the best
search results feasible. How do you remove the good sites from the bad sites?
Make it tough for the bad sites to vie. Google is achieving this through their
algorithm updates.
Online visibility represents a number of
today’s SEO elements, including brand building, reputation management, quality
content production, social media promotion, and so much more.
This is well beyond the scope of early SEO
that incorporated keyword research, generic, keyword-stuffed content
production, site convenience, and link building.
Staying
Practical Against Algorithms
The difference between great SEOs and
normal SEOs is that the great ones have a sense of what the outlook holds. They
are able to explore their crystal ball and plan for potential algorithms that
may lie ahead. What’s their secret? It’s understanding. There is a good chance
that one time or another they were penalized for their SEO practices and have a
complete understanding of the power of Google.
Here
are a few things you can do to stay proactive:
·
Don’t
have a one-dimensional backlink profile. An instance would be a site that has
mostly built links through guest posting. While guest posting is a great way to
link build, your backlink profile is supposed to look usual. Having a site with
backlinks mainly coming from one source is a clear sign to Google that you are attempting
to influence rankings. Instead make an effort to switch up your link building tactic.
For every guest post you write, try to get a couple of directory links and a
few blog comments too. Some consider directory links and blog commenting
outdated link building tactics but they are still helpful as long as they are relevant
links on quality sites. Choose carefully where you build these links and if
you’re going to leave a comment make sure you are contributing to the
discussion.
·
It’s
always an excellent time to clear out your backlink profile. If you really want
to be practical with link building, don’t wait for the subsequent update to
chuck out bad links. We all have a few links we are not proud of and it’s best
to get rid of them now before it’s too late. Do you best to have these links
removed by speaking to webmasters and if that doesn’t work then use Google’s
disavow tool. However Google stresses to employ this tool after all other efforts
have failed.
·
Expand
your anchor texts. This should not be breaking news to anyone but if you
haven’t already made an attempt to differ your anchor texts when link building
then there is no better time to start than today. This goes back to building a
usual backlink profile. A site that has the bulk of its links coming from one
or two anchor texts is another sign to Google that your links are abnormal.
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