Panda. Penguin. The SEO ‘I Told You So’ Topic

Many site owners are really unhappy by the changes Google has made to it’s ranking algorithms over the past year. Each major change Google makes has a nickname. Last years biggee was ‘Panda’ and this year it’s ‘Penguin’. Two site owners I’ve spoken with recently described their problem as ‘The Panda Virus’.

For many years Google has been telling everyone who would listen about their intentions. Obviously they don’t give up the specific algorithm, but they do tell you their goals: to rank pages according to their relevance. Google recognized early on that their rankings could be gamed in various ways. They warned everyone that they will constantly work to make the code in line with their aspirations. And guess what? Now they’re getting there. It’s getting harder to game the system and it’s going to continue to get even harder. There’s no point complaining. From Google’s point of view they are succeeding. So the time has come to get with the program!

I think it’s fair to say that the majority of sites have ignored Google’s guidelines. So some are now reaping that whirlwind. Most of my clients have treated SEO advice a lot like all sermons. It all sounds great, but doesn’t have much day to day usefulness. Many sites either do no real SEO work, or add half-baked meta tags and leave it at that. Perhaps the subject is too ‘mystical’ or too expensive—both are wrong. Many companies that do pay for SEO work continue to try gaming the system instead of just doing following the ‘commandments.’

We can argue about what makes pages ‘worthy’, but my advice now, as ever, is to value what Google values. Write great, relevant content that you would want to see if you were searching for something. It’s like investing. Forget quick returns and stick with the fundamentals. In the long run, you’ll spend a lot less time and money worrying about each Google update and get long term results you can count on. To get started, just check my SEO Tips page. Or call me.