Last year was a tumultuous one for search engines. We had some major updates from both Bing and Google that caused palpable ripples in the results pages and changed how businesses were getting ranked. So, what can businesses do to ensure they’re reading for whatever ups and downs are sure to come? Read on and find out how to protect yourself and your business.
1. Guest blogging
Guest blogging has become all the rage. And recently, it’s even started popping up on Google’s radar and could be penalized if done in an abusive fashion. This, of course, is no surprise. Whenever a new SEO technique comes out, it’s only a matter of time before spammers and black hat practitioners begin to abuse it and ruin it for the rest of us.
So, how do you ensure that your guest blogging campaign doesn’t get dinged by Google? You can follow the tips outlined by Google’s Matt Cutts in this video:
- Don’t make guest blogging your only link building strategy.
- Don’t send out thousands of mass emails offering to guest blog for random sites.
- Don’t use the same guest article on two different sites.
- Don’t take one article and spin it many times.
Follow these rules and you should be fine. Plus, if you’re doing these guest blogs for the right reasons, you shouldn’t have to worry about breaking any of these rules in the first place.
2. Google authorship
Google authorship is a way for your work and your recognition to follow you as you travel around the Internet spreading your knowledge. The authorship links to your Google+ page and allows readers to get a quick snippet on you and your writing background. It’s also is a great tool for SEO.
But, as we’ve already stated, when a good thing comes to light it only takes a moment for the baddies to start messing it up. So, by all means, use Google authorship and ensure that you’re getting credit for your hard work—but avoid these common pitfalls:
- Creating fake authorship for spammy publishing
- Publishing low quality work with your authorship
- Having numerous authorships linked to the same IP address
As I stated earlier, if you’re using Google authorship for the right reasons, you’ll be just fine. But if you’re skirting the line between white hat and black, be aware of what can get you in trouble and avoid it.
3. Content marketing
Content marketing was and is the SEO buzzword of the year. In 2013, everyone and their dog had a new technique for content marketing or a great method to disseminate the content you’d created. With this surge in popularity came the downside of content marketing—spam. It rose up like an unholy wave of crappy infographics, poorly written articles, and bad videos. Everyone wanted to take part in content marketing, but no one wanted to put in the time and effort. And believe me, good content marketing takes a ton of time and effort.
My advice: Avoid spam and low quality content. Don’t worry about having to hit certain quotas of content. If the content is good, it will be shared and the desired affect will be achieved. If you’re just pumping out loads of low-quality content, you might end up getting yourself a search engine penalty. When it comes to content marketing, the old adage is certainly true: “quality over quantity.”
Scott Cohen is CEO of 180fusion.
