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SEO InformationGoogle’s New Direction - Could Your Linking Strategy be Pain Your Rankings?
by:
Courtney Heard
Over the past week, most folk have detected
significant changes in the SERPs at Google. Web sites that antecedently
control number one positions have born
to number 89, and several web sites have disappeared off the Google results pages altogether. As is the case with all major Google updates, SEOs have been panicking in forums and there has been more discussion just about one topic in particular: reciprocal linking.
The 1st thing you have to do to understand the direction in which Google is taking with this update, is to get into the minds of the folk who run it. Thing
that is so often unnoticed
is the fact that Google (and any else search engine) is 1st and foremost, a business. The reason they offer the service they do, is to do money, to do stocks soar and to support shareholders happy. Google’s financial gain
comes from many an sources, but the main one is advertising. In order to be able to sell their advertising real estate for a profitable price, the ad space of necessity
to be seen. In order for the ad space to be seen, many, many, many an folk must visit the Google web site and use the Google search engine. In order for Google traffic to be at such a level, Google must offer a great, if not the best, search engine service.
So, how makes Google offer, or attempt to offer, the absolute better service possible? By having the most relevant, and most useful search results.
Useful and relevant web sites are sites that are extremely visitor-friendly, sites that offer a lot of quality information in many an several forms, from RSS feeds, to articles, to forums. Sites that are organized and have developed, naturally, a respect on the internet. A great example of such a site is About.com - search for any topic on About.com and you get a page with a lot of information on that topic and many, many an links to else web sites that carry further information. It is, undoubtedly, one of the better places on the Net
to go for information.
Now, here’s wherever
it gets tricky. In the past, Google has evaluated web sites by looking at areas of the site that are easily manipulated by webmasters and SEOs, such as meta tags, alt tags, keyword density, page titles, etc. We all cognize this has changed. Google has begun to reward sites with a more natural approach to these areas, and to punish sites that have been over-optimized.
The key now, is visitor-friendly, natural web sites. Google wish attract more repeat users, and thus, more advertising capital, if their search results always yield web sites that have the information searchers are looking for and are easy to use and understand.
Natural web sites are web sites who’s page titles reflect the page content in an easily comprehensible way. They are web sites who’s keywords meta tags contain only the words that apply to the page content. They have description tags that reflect the content in a concise, easily understood way. They have pictures alt tags that describe the pictures properly. Most importantly, natural web sites are web sites that develop a natural link popularity. That is to say, they don’t have causal agency working on finding web sites to swap links with. This is an unnatural linking strategy. A natural linking strategy is to offer a good, capable
web site and have folk link to it of their own accord because it’s such a great resource. Such a strategy likewise includes linking out to quality web sites that offer further information on your web site’s topic, whether or not they link back to you. This is a large indicator that the goal of your web site is just to offer the better information possible to web site visitors.
Cross-promotion wish happen naturally as well, and links that are a result of cross-promotion are still considered a natural linking strategy, and as a result, Google or any else search engine cannot not outlaw reciprocal linking all together. But you have to be extremely meticulous just about the sites you decide to engage in cross-promotion with. They must be really relevant and should have a decent presence on Google. Stay away from machine-driven
linking programs, link farms and most importantly, exchanging links with excessive amounts of web sites. Your links page should look like an superior
place for your visitors to go should they require further information on the topic your site deals with.
In short, the most important factor contributive to your Google ranking, is visitor-friendliness. Amassing tremendous amounts of link exchanges just makes not activity anymore. You utterly
must have your web site visitor’s of necessity
foremost in your mind. If you meet those needs, you wish be rewarded several in your rankings and in repeat traffic.
Just just about the author:
Courtney Detected
is the founder of Univalve
Designs - http://www.abalone.ca, a search engine optimisation institution in Vancouver, Canada. She has been involved in web development and marketing since 1995 and has helped start several businesses since then in the Vancouver area. Much of Courtney's articles are accessible at http://www.abalone.ca/resources/
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