Does SEO Still Work After the Penguin and Panda Updates?
Posted by Click Finders in In Bound Marketing, organic search engine optimization, Panda, Penguin, SEO, SEO 2.0, SEO Basics | 17 comments
Does SEO Still Work?
It’s a question that is being asked all over the internet, by business owners, traditional marketing professionals and even the media. Google is busy fighting spam. Google has taken it upon itself to free the Internet of varying degrees of spam, black-hat riddled websites, poor content, and almost anything else that doesn’t serve the searcher/reader. The seemingly inconspicuous question “Does SEO still work?” has spun off multiple threads on SEO forums, Q & A sites such as Quora, and countless number of blog posts. It’s time to get real and understand a few undeniable truths about SEO.
Having been in the SEO business for so long, it’s hard for us not to respond to that question, so we will. Here are some truths about SEO (search engine optimization) you must learn to accept, in a post Penguin and Panda update era:
SEO that works: the hard, slow and painstaking real content generation SEO does still work!
The easy route to search domination is to follow ‘SEO Shortcuts’ or perhaps rub a little evil on and indulge in Black Hat SEO techniques. The short answer is that none of those will work with any lasting effects. As Ruth Burr writes in her post SEO isn’t Magic: So Stop SEO Tricks, without the little shortcuts, SEO is undeniably, resource-heavy, technically difficult, and time-consuming. Today, it’s evident more than ever that only the right kind of SEO works. The emphasis is on great content, natural link-building, and judicial use of keywords when it’s natural and makes sense only.
Content is the new SEO insurance plan
There’s a reason why companies such as Hubspot, Kiss Metrics and SEOmoz have proven to be authority sites in their respective niches. It’s not surprising since they base their marketing on content. Any random magazine with an online presence sees more traffic and engagement per reader than a website that spends more time on ineffective SEO techniques than on developing content.
For a website, blog, or a company seeking to establish presence on the web, content is where the focus should have been. Good SEO starts from there. You work so hard to bring visitors to your website, but we beg to ask you: what will they get when they finally arrive? Make it worth their visit, give them something no one else can….your unique and genuine content.
How do you build great content? Focus on retaining your personality, make strong and educated opinions, and bring in humor if you can. If there is one insurance plan you can to hold steady in the wake of Google’s periodic and unpredictable storms, it will always be content.
Some things about SEO will never change
Good HTML coding with sensible use of keywords in the Title tag, Meta tags and on-page content is not going to change anytime soon. Nor will the need to practice good solid link building. The difference in today’s post Panda and Penguin updates is that low quality links mean less than ever before for ranking purposes. Good quality links are essential, that combined with a good content strategy and a solid social media presence and you will find yourself quickly climbing the rankings.
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Actually for me the penguin update worked wonders on my business website but for my personal website wreaked havoc. I think for the most part that Google is getting smarter about backlink automation and therefore it is becoming more important than ever to do manual backlinking. However, be careful, it only works if the backlink is non-duplicated and from an authority website like yours. I’ve always felt that a good start to SEO is effective keyword research and finding keywords that not only get a good amount of searches but have a lower amount of competition.
Hi Paul – Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment.
I agree, Keyword Research is an essential first step to any effective SEO program.
Thanx for posting the latest SEO update. I think On page SEO (good keyword based rich unique content) is now more effective than offpage SEO , suppose I have a webdesign company, I dont need to update it daily except some offers, present condition, client’s testimonial etc. news of my company. I dont want to post about webdesign technique. Then what will I do? How can my company come at the top result as a web design company in google? Good Social bookmarking is just enough for my site? I will be grateful to you if you answer this.
My spouse and I stumbled over here different website and thought I might as well check things out. I like what I see so i am just following you. Look forward to looking into your web page for a second time.
Content is definitely a great insurance plan. I think Google is trying very hard to make it so that content is created for the user and not for the search engines. We should continue doing SEO with users in mind, while we try to increase our rankings at the same time. I agree with the comment above that On Page SEO seems to still be very important as well. Thanks for your thoughts.
@Jesse – Hi Jesse! Thanks for reading and the comment. Your point about keeping the users in mind is key. Building content for SE’s is not the way to go for sure!
Thanks again!
admin recently posted..Does SEO Still Work After the Penguin and Panda Updates?
@Websitez – Thanks for reading adn the comment!
Nice article (found it by twitter).
Indeed, like RuthBurr said: ‘SEO isn’t magic’ but,
isn’t Onpage SEO (good content) more important than Offpage SEO when you have already number off great sites linking to you if you just started with your website?
Nobody will visit your website, even if you have some great articles, when nobody can find you. Maybe some easy ‘old school’ backlinking can give you an head start?
@Hugo – Exactly. Backlinks are still an important part of SEO and referral traffic.
Thanks for reading and the comment!
Hey I am so thrilled I found your site, I really found you by error, while I was searching on Google for something else, Anyways I am here now and would just like to say thanks a lot for a incredible post and a all round interesting blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to read through it all at the minute but I have book-marked it and also added in your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read a great deal more, Please do keep up the fantastic job.
The panda and penguin update has really changed the scenerio of the way in which people did seo,,theme designers have really been hit,,,and i also regret now for sponsoring a theme for a link,,penguin was a very bad update for me
@Tech – Yes themes were hit HARD, unfairly in my opinion, but I guess a lot of people abused the Theme link option. Hope your site returns quickly!
Mike Glover recently posted..Does SEO Still Work After the Penguin and Panda Updates?
This is a great post to see and from a source that I trust. The work on quality content, just like you said in your post about making Twitter work for your site’s SEO, creating quality content takes “a little elbow grease, a little ingenuity and creative thinking.”
For me, and for some of my clients, the rub comes when there is no time to set aside for creating that content. As a result, I’ve sought partnerships with good copywriters and I have a short list (two people, actually) of go-to copywriters who I can count on to generate professional press releases, event blurbs as well as blog post content. This has proven to be a great relief for those with heavy schedules.
Scott Kindred recently posted..Best Time To Post On Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr
Hi Scott – Thanks for reading and the comment!
Copywriters are becoming more and more popular and more important than ever for a busy website owner/operator. I am glad you found a couple that you trust and that do good work for you!
I laugh when I read these posts. The sites that have been hit the hardest are not the spam sites. Actually, most people I know that have been doing that for years were helped post penguin. The sites that do not use adsense were the ones that were the hardest hit. I think you will start to notice a trend because of the conflict between Facebook and Google. Facebook will be launching it’s own version of adsense in the near future with less regulation. This is known by Google and is quite literally scaring the pants off of them. My Black Hat friends are now making more money than they ever have while the poor white hat guys who busted their butts and paid all these SEO services were slammed. You have 2 choices. Use adsense to keep rank or use those blackhat techniques to gain rank. (Those black hat ways everyone talks bad about are used by ALL major corporations) If you are already established you have nothing to worry about.
@ Just Some Guy – That’s an interesting take you have there 🙂 Facebook is moving closer and closer to search engine capability for sure. And yes, I am sure Google is watching them very closely. Only time will tell for sure though.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
It isn’t difficult to get your site back up in rank. You can win Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird updates. Win the Google Update War.