Google: What works? What doesn't?

A lot of the threads here are about Google's updates. Frankly speaking, I consider talk about updates more or less a waste of time. Rather, I like to look at Google in a way where I prefer to think about what strategy will be the best long term without the need to sweat whenever someone screams Panda.

So here are a few observations and thoughts of mine:

Google seems to enjoy scaring webmasters into doing what benefits them. Reading the latest news about the BBC receiving an unnatural link notification being a prime example.

One thing that Google desperately needs is Social Signals. Twitter is working hard on blocking Google's access to their system and in order for Google to give satisfying results to their readers, learning what people share and like is essential.

Google Plus, Gmail can help, but at this point it doesn't seem to be enough.
One thing I am always being told is that guest blogging works and links from within blog posts are very beneficial. So there is a natural way to determine if a blog post is liked, minus of course the paid blog posts out there. And giving webmasters the disavow tool probably helped Google pinpoint a massload of blogs which do sell links within their post.

Overall, I figure the best thing to do at this point is unlearn whatever tricks you once thought worked. A link within a blog post or on a site should probably state what the link goes to, which could be the official name of the site/company, the exact name of the article and preferably "Continue here ... ", "Read more ... " or something like "Want to know more?".


I have experienced new sites of mine shooting up to page 1 or 2 for the keyword I anticipated marketing them towards (by complete surprise) and then I have also experienced a site of mine dropping immediately the moment I made some changes. The changes of mine were usually made with Google in mind to push myself even higher ... which didn't work.

So right now, to me the best strategy seems to be to build a site that converts. Forget Google completely, build a site that I will be happy with for years to come and then see if it hits.
If it does, don't make changes. If it doesn't rank, at least it is not penalized, so other than adding some content, I would not touch it in ways that could be considered unnatural.

The best thing for me has been social media and when done right, Google normally kicks in as a nice side effect. Probably because when done right, there will be people linking to me from their blogs etc. Without me having to ask for it, worry about how they link. Just a link, a token so to speak, signalling Google that they might want to consider my site in their search results as people seem to like whatever I wrote.

About blog posts:

There are two things that I want my blog posts to trigger.

1) People need to click on them.

It means that you should not have a boring title. Stuffed with keywords, lame in sound.
Be unique. I was recently advised that "Google is looking for what they have not found yet", so being creative, getting attention is key here.

2) People need to share them.

You can have as little as 300 Twitter followers, but if the right people share your tweets, you can go viral. So know how to write. Try writing something where you put your best foot forward and see how well you do without even thinking about Google.

Obviously, Google wants webmasters to use their outlets like Gmail, Google Plus and Youtube, so authorship from your Google profile and a link below a Youtube video can help.



Aside from that, I'd say the prime focus should be to push your material "out there".

Be present wherever there is reaction to your posts. Use social media outlets you get invited to if needed. If your network is going there, it means there you will reach readers.


Please let me know what type of strategy has working for you.

How are your sites doing, where do you get most of your traffic from?
The above is based on my own experience, so the more people will share what works for them, the better of a thread this will be come to create a positive balance to the many "Google penalized this" or "Google warned such and such" reports which don't help me one bit.

Thanks a lot in advance.

~ Mike Dammann

 

I usually dont pay much attention to Google. Although I don't practise black hat SEO on my client sites, I have plenty of test sites which works with paid links pretty well. So to think too much about what penalty Google will give you is usually a waste of time.

However, if you do have a genuine website, stay clear from doing any sort of shady tactics. Black hat SEO works for sites which you can throw away if penalty hits.

 

Completely agreed. And years ago I saw a lot of the top sites out there using shady tactics in one form or another and not getting penalized. Obviously, those days are now long gone.

 

I think the best strategy is simply to make quality content a top priority. We've all shared websites with our friends and family that we found interesting, so before one hits "Publish" on their blog post, ask yourself if somebody would ever share that article ... Or better yet, would *you* ever share it? Would you post it to your own facebook page? If I can't say "yes" to this, I scrap it.

Another really important thing, when planning content, is to put yourself in the mind of your reader. Look at the keyword you're writing the article for, or having the article written about.. When somebody types in that keyword, what are they *really* looking for? For example, if the keyword is "how to sharpen a knife", make darn sure that your article is going to answer that question for them, and then lead them towards relevant things (Where to buy a knife sharpener, or an article about how to sharpen *different kinds* of knives... etc)

As someone who sticks strictly to whitehat techniques, frankly, I welcome Google updates because it brings my sites closer to where (I feel) they rightfully belong

Thanks for this topic, it was interesting to read.

 

Good point and something I have previously experienced that while you do nothing, a lot of the sites above you get penalized and you're moving up.

 

I think that's something that gets lost in the static often when people talk about major updates... Whenever there's a major google update, there's still TEN sites ranking on the front page, so if the spammy ones are getting removed, that only helps the people with long-term authority sites targeting 100's of long-tail keywords in a very natural, organic way... (Or at least I like to think so, since those are the types of sites I focus on! LOL)

 

It does seem to be something that many are not focused on correctly:

The incentive is not to "beat Google", but the competition.

 

It is a nice point here that the incentive is not to beat Google but to beat the competition..I think we all should keep this single line in our mind..

 

Here, I want to add something new.
We have to keep in mind one important thing and that is unique content.
How can you decide what type of content you have to post in your blog or web page. Some of my tips:

• Search about your topic which you are going to write.
• Check top 10 listing and analyze their content.
• What they write in their content?
• Think, what is remaining? What you can add?

If you find some missing information about that topic write a content on it and post it.
The content becomes unique for Google and you will get good result for that.

 

Great line "The incentive is not to "beat Google", but the competition" If says lot in just one sentence. You need to focus on your competitor (who are still on google's first page). They are on top 10 because google thought that they are doing ethical seo activities.