The traffic looks stable, rankings are all good and the conversion from your website is just right. But you still have the nagging feeling that something somewhere is not right. Maybe a SEO disaster is lurking in the lurch. Okay, do not get nervous but with the number of changes that Google rolls out every year, it is quite likely that your website might get affected by one of them in one way or the other.
I know everybody hates to hear this, but SEO is unpredictable. You cannot tell your clients for sure that their rankings will remain static for years no matter how good you are at making predictions and taking proactive steps to ensure that their online marketing campaign remains in line with the upcoming changes.
Penguin update, just like its predecessor Panda update, has caught most marketers off guard though they will all vehemently deny it as their reputation is at stake. But denial is not an option when you have invested so much in your website. By following a simple strategy that consists of three simple rules – Adaptation, Alignment and Training, you will be able to cope with the changing landscape of SEO.
Let’s explore how we can withstand the onslaught of Google’s algo updates –
Nurturing an SEO Culture
SEO is not a cult, rather SEO is a culture and therefore, it needs to be nurtured. But the problem is that most people doing SEO believe that they are a Jack of all trades and Master of everything. This is the kind of mentality that breeds failure. Most people lack enthusiasm when it comes to learning something new and exciting. This is even more true when the subject revolves around organic SEO because everybody around believes that he/she knows the best and there is no question of knowing or learning any more on that subject.
But to make your website future proof, you have to get these people motivated by making people of different units share their experience. Do it like an open interaction session where everybody can share his/her opinion. This will open up hundreds of new opportunities and you may get new ideas. Whenever, you feel that there is some kind of updates about to roll out.
Alignment
I hope that there is a team looking after various facets of your website. In that case, you need to make these people read major SEO journals and ask them to come up with their own conclusion after reading those journals. For eCommerce companies, there should be a perfect coordination between the offline marketers and online marketers because a combination of both can help you avoid an SEO disaster. Say for example, you can ask your offline marketers to encourage your customers to ‘Like’ your Facebook fan page or Tweet a page or something like that.
Algorithm Changes
Algo changes are something that you cannot stop. But by making your team more knowledgeable and by aligning different sections of the marketing channels, you can prevent a possible SEO wipeout. You need to keep up with the current trends and bring in new changes in organizational structures whenever it requires. Write engaging content that focuses on visitors and not search engines, integrate social media in your online marketing campaign, avoid black hat SEO practices etc are some of the practices that you need to adopt to make your website algo proof.
Sunday
January 14, 2014 at 12:00 pm
Hi Michael,
I concur with you in a lot of the submissions you have made in this article. One that I cannot argue is the fact that most SEO experts see themselves as “Jack of all trades and Master of everything”.
This type of attitudes affect their logical reasoning and at the end, the clients are really affected.
The concepts of Alignment, Adaptation, and Training are concepts that should really never be ignored.
It makes sense to follow the trends of the search engines so as to be able to develop an effective SEO per time!
In kingged.com, this post was shared after which I left the above comment for Internet marketers.
Sunday – kingged.com contributor
http://kingged.com/preventing-an-seo-wipeout-three-things-to-consider/