A lucid account...
The writing's on the quality wall - Google's next algorithm updates
Google has finally come down hard on poor quality website content and link building, announcing a series of algorithm changes designed to give a painful slap to websites whose owners have consistently attempted to 'manipulate' the search results.
First, how have people been manipulating Google's algorithms? Here's a few common examples:
- by adding poor quality site content, for example by 'spinning' a piece of text using spinning software to create fresh content that either makes very little sense or simply duplicates information found elsewhere
- by manipulating back-links, either paying for or otherwise building inbound links that are not based on the content's genuine popularity
- by keyword stuffing, identifying popular search terms and including them an un-natural number of times in site content... so it reads like a dog but attracts search engine attention
- by including 'irrelevant' links in off-site content just to attract search engine attention and win valuable 'link juice'
As a general rule, when you create site content with your readers - not search engines - front of mind, you're onto a winner. Whereas trying to manipulate the way search engines 'see' your site without taking readers' needs into account is a bigger no-no than ever.
The algorithm changes are due to take place 'over the next few days' so it's a good idea to keep an eye on your rankings so you can take action if needs be. Some sites, the worst offenders, will probably end up being de-indexed, in other words thrown out of Google altogether. If that happens to your site, it's a clear indication you've been sailing too close to the SEO wind. What to do? Get your website in better shape and submit a request for reconsideration via your Google account.
What might cleaning up your website involve?
- replacing poor quality, 'spun' or keyword-stuffed content with good quality, unique content written with your visitors in mind
- attempting to clean up your back-link profile, requesting the removal of back-links that are suspect ie. blatantly paid-for or bought from link farm-type organisations
- set in place a content strategy and marketing plan designed to make your site as popular and useful as possible with your target audience
- steer clear of SEO experts who claim they'll get you on page 1 of Google in no time
Google's latest algorithm changes cause SEO consternation!
As I've mentioned before, Google uses incredibly complex algorithms to figure out where websites belong in the search results, so it's a good idea to make every effort to give the search engine giant what it needs and stick to the rules.
The problem is, the rules are never 100% obvious. Google doesn't publish specific 'how to' guidelines about what it does and doesn't approve of. It's mostly guesswork, usually based on testing, trial and error by SEOs working at the uncomfortably sharp end of online marketing, out in the badlands!
In reality, it's hard to imagine search engines going about life any other way. But it's also clear that the online landscape is so competitive that if there's a means of circumventing the accepted way of doing things, SEOs will take it.
That's exactly what seems to have happened with a certain link network, which has recently nosedived in Google's rankings, taking the links its customers created with it. In real life, this means sites that placed too much reliance on the network to build inbound links have lost their search results positions.
At the moment many SEO agencies are running around like headless chickens trying to resolve the situation. Because Google has sent out a load of emails telling businesses that their back link activity is suspect, agencies are fielding some pretty serious client complaints.
But take a step back and it's an opportunity to educate customers in the hard reality of SEO. Any agency worth its salt will try its level best to stay ahead of the game. SEO is a moveable feast and some link building methods inevitably come close to the edge of what's generally regarded as legitimate. SEO is always risky per se. Wise SEO experts aren't silly enough to put all their eggs in one basket. But others obviously have!
If I was an SEO expert I'd be explaining exactly that to my clients rather than trying to whitewash the issue, make excuses or dodge responsibility.
It's caused such a hoo-hah in the industry that some hysterical folk are saying it's the end of search engine optimisation as we know it. But that's just silly. Less panicking is in order, and more thinking things through intelligently.
If your site has suffered a drop in its search rankings recently, knee-jerk reactions are not going to help. Your best bet is to overhaul your content so it's as best it can be, and remove any links you think might be causing you grief. It isn't an easy task. But it's the only real way. Just bear in mind for the future that this kind of thing is practically inevitable.
There's one thing you can do to safeguard your site's positions in future: check your SEO agency is building links using a nice, broad variety of methods and tools, not just a handful. And not, god forbid, just the one!
Duplicate website content - the dangers and pitfalls
If you haven't come across the duplicate content issue yet and you'd like to know more, here's a quick run-down of the dangers and pitfalls.
What is duplicate content?
It's where your website contains copy (text) that also appears elsewhere on the web.
How does it arise?
You might have been tempted to copy and paste product or service details from somewhere else. Taken great chunks of useful information and just reproduced it. Or bought a drop shipping site with duplicate product information automatically included.
Why is it a bad thing?
- it's lazy from a marketing and business perspective. Your business has a unique selling proposition. Your website deserves special treatment, and so do your customers
- Google and co don't like it because consumers don't appreciate having an internet stuffed with the same old information wherever you look
As far as we know - and most of what we know is conjecture - search engines give sites with unique content priority over those with duplicate content in the search results. Which means duplicate content can suppress your site's visibility and ultimately affect your bottom line.
Some SEO experts feel the smallest piece of duplicate content can have a negative effect on visibility. Some believe you have to go some to attract Google and cos' attention. We'll never really know for sure. But it's almost certain you'll face an outright ban or be 'sandboxed' pending further enquiry if you copy someone else's site content wholesale.
What's the most sensible approach?
Make sure your site content is 100% unique. Being squeaky clean is better for your profit margins and better for your customers. So everyone wins.
How much do you need to know about the way Google works?
How long is a piece of string? It's up to you really. If you have the time and inclination, fill your boots. There's a wealth of information out there about how Google's algorithms work and how to take advantage of them. There's plenty of advice about how to circumvent them too, but that's never a good idea.
One thing shines through time and time again. It's the thing everyone who engages in ecommerce should bear in mind. We see it every time Google makes an algorithm change. Or Algo change, as it's known in the trade.
Google is about quality.
First, they want searchers to have the best possible search experience. Second, they want ecommerce to enjoy a level playing field where size and wealth doesn't necessarily mean you automatically rank highly in the search results. A place where quality is the measuring stick.
The latest algo change – called 'Panda' or 'Farmer' by SEO experts - is no exception to the quality rule. Launched a while back in the US, it has yet to hit the UK. But it appears, according to industry sources, to have solved the issue of content farming for a start. If you don't know what content farming is, suffice to say it's nasty. It does the search experience and commercial landscape no favours and fills the internet with badly written, shallow junk. So it's a good loophole to close.
The rest of the latest algo update story seems to revolve around quality content again. It looks like they're tightening up on lazy content generation, things like 'spinning' and thinly-disguised duplicate content. They're probably coming down a bit harder on keyword stuffed content and pages blatantly created for nothing but SEO purposes, useless to human readers. And they're probably hitting blatant paid link building a bit harder too. Best of all, they've done all this with the backing of a mass of statistical information provided by people like you and I.
It's good to know it's a little bit less like the Wild West out there every time Google updates its algorithms!
The moral of the Panda/Farmer update tale? If you're serious about ecommerce you'll be doing this anyway. Make your on site content the best you can. Deliver exactly what your customer wants, so much so that they don't want or need to go anywhere else. Make the whole process as simple and painless as you can. Treat them with respect and consideration. Abide by the ecommunity's accessibility guidelines. And you're there.
If in doubt, move your ecommerce site onto a platform that takes the technical, back-room side of all this stuff into account at grass roots level. ours is the best of breed. Once the basics are sorted out you can concentrate on beautiful, functional design and superb content.
Ecommerce with LucidSynergy – What about SEO?
If you're in business online you'll have heard of SEO. Whether you've just had a sniff at it or made serious inroads into finding out what's what, you'll realise search engine optimisation is critical to site visibility.
In a nutshell, unless you either embrace DIY 'natural' SEO, pay an expert to do it for you or cough up for paid Google AdWords exposure - AKA Pay Per Click - your site won't stand a chance of getting a decent ranking in Google's search results pages.
Thankfully Adobe's fantastic Business Catalyst e-commerce platform, on which we build ecommerce sites for our clients, takes care of a lot of the SEO basics automatically and saves small business owners like you an enormous amount of time and effort.
Our CMS comes complete with a set of excellent quality integrated web tools, including all the SEO features you'd expect from a state of the art content management system. Things like automatically generated XML Google sitemaps and SEO-friendly plain language naming protocols. And unlike many lesser CMS, it doesn't clog things up backstage by adding loads of pointless source code to your pages.
If you didn't understand a word of that, it doesn't actually matter. That's the beauty of the platform we use. It happens in the background automatically. The 'back office' end of on-site SEO is taken care of for you. Your new content management system will set stuff up in perfect SEO order.
It's a shame it can't write your site content for you or create a hard working, beautiful design. Remarkable as the system is, the creative parts of the process are still down to us humans!
It's the biggest e-market on earth!
6 ways to maximise e-commerce success
E-commerce is an increasingly important part of the world economy. We all know that. But did you realise how important the e-commerce market is to the UK economy? You might be surprised to know we're right at the top of the pile.
We're a tiny island. But recent research shows the UK is the biggest per capita e-commerce market on the planet, and the world's second biggest online advertising market. In 2009 the internet contributed a massive £100,000,000 to the UK economy. That's a whopping 7.2% of our total GDP, much more than construction, transport or utilities. And we export £2.80 for every £1 worth of e-commerce revenue.
Wow! It's obviously a bandwagon worth jumping on! But competition is fierce. So how can businesses like yours maximise the potential of this vast and growing market? Here's six simple ways to boost your e-commerce income:
- Make sure your website works as well as it possibly can from a user perspective with smooth, fast, trusted payment facilities, compelling images, great product descriptions etcetera
- Use SEO – Search Engine Optimisation – or SEM (Search Engine Marketing) techniques to make sure your website is visible to people who search for your kind of goods and services
- Update your website regularly to keep it fresh and current. You wouldn't leave a shop window display unchanged for weeks, so make sure you don't neglect your website
- Price your goods and services so they're competitive. No matter how good your site is, if your pricing is way off the mark you'll have a much harder time converting enquiries to sales
- Set up automated systems for customer acquisition, retention and service. Make sure your customer communications are attractive and clear, relevant and intelligent
- Make sure your site is hosted properly so if you get a sudden big surge in visitors it'll be able to handle things without collapsing
Back to reality
Time to get back to some serious work with the site and the blog. Just got back from a 6 day tour round the north of England and a bit of Scotland with a mate of mine on our Harleys. Managed to get 1006 miles done and saw a lot of England that I've never seen before, great fun and the weather was OK (well, average actually!)
One of the things I did notice was the amount of shops that have closed down in many places, surprisingly there seemed quite a lot in Berwick-upon-Tweed which I had always thought was a big tourist attraction.
It is busy but I guess like everywhere it has suffered from the recession and perhaps some of the older businesses just don't get the amount of customers needed to sustain a business. The sad thing is being an old town it looks like some of the lovely period buildings are likely to be redeveloped into modern buildings, not a bad thing in the right place but not here, it just doesn't seem right.
The relevant point in context to online business is if no one knows where you are how can you expect to get any customers, and no customers means no business which is why being found by the search engines is so important.
Not claiming to be an SEO expert here but I do have an understanding, am well read and have attended a very good course on SEO (search engine optimisation for those that don't enjoy acronyms!)
So here's a few points to help in your online SEO efforts, remember though this is an ongoing process and there's a load more you need to do!
- Page titles, make sure they're relevant to the content and what you do
- Make sure you have a meta description for each page of around 150 characters, again relevant to the page and your business
- Make sure you have a meta keywords for each page, although Google no longer really counts this other search engines do
- Keep your page and paragraph headings relevant to their importance by using the H1, H2, H3 tags correctly
- Any images used should have relevant alt text tags for those using screen readers or have disabled images
- Use relevant keywords in your content but not to the point of saturation! You need to find a happy medium that will help the search engine crawlers whilst still being easily readable by your visitors
I better go and check I've done all that now!
Recent Posts
- Local-ness becomes an important marketing factor in the search results
- What is link bait, why is it useful and how do you create it?
- How to create perfect web page content
- The writing's on the quality wall - Google's next algorithm updates
- Why bother with great web design?
- 30 ways to 'do' marketing without social media!
- The power of interaction... and why it's essential for Twitter lead generation
- Google's latest algorithm changes cause SEO consternation!
- A few words about the latest social media phenomenon, Pinterest
- Keeping social media in proportion
