Google has made 500 algorithm changes in the past year! Most of them we've never heard of, and didn't make much difference to our search engine rankings and to our organic search traffic. However, there were two in the past two months that may have made a significant difference: Panda and Penguin.
The changes affect your business blogging because these updates affected how your content ranks. By favoring higher quality content and white hat SEO techniques, those that don't deliver will be punished. To avoid a drop in rankings, here's what Google itself says about great business blogging (it's worth a listen, since this is what the search engine giant likes to see when ranking posts and pages):
- Keep Each Blog/Page to One Topic - Google doesn't like keyword stuffing (which should already be a given). The best way to avoid that is to keep each page or blog post to one topic and to include the ONE relevant keyword throughout the copy of that page. This ensure that the page is well optimized for that keyword, while also avoid the overkill of keyword stuffing or coming across as something written for the search engine instead of human beings. Plus, it's incredibly difficult to have one page rank well for multiple keywords.
- Do Something Cool! - Find a way to stand out from the competition, whether that's including video, creating an infographic, or publishing remarkable content more often. While doing so, watch our for duplicate content. Google does not like duplicate content, so be weary about copying and pasting your own pagers, or republishing old posts, whether or not they are great content.
- Have a Value Proposition on Every Page of the Website - This ties in with number one, but make sure that every page provides something unique i.e the value proposition. The best way to sell this value proposition is with the meta description, the 150 words that shows up in search engine rankings. It's also a great place to include that relevant keyword. Essentially, provide value in your content and create a great experience for the user. Don't put up pages and articles for the sake of getting found online.
Overall, focus on your web visitors, not on the search engines. Your web visitors will eventually be the ones who will become your customers. Don't worry so much about keywords and being on the first page of every single one. If you just have an excellent business blog and you produce great content marketing offers for your target market, they will find you one way or another.
To find out how well you're already doing on Google and your online marketing, sign up for our free web assessment! This assessment will tell you how you fare against your competition, and what you can do to improve:
