Google's New Linking Guidelines

I am incredibly lucky to have connected with a great Search Engine Optimization (SEO) company, Search Optimizers. The Account Manager I work with is incredibly diligent about keeping his clients updated on the newest algorithm changes impacting search. He recently sent me an email with the following information:

Google published a blog post covering the new linking guidelines; we recommend reviewing it carefully as many of these tactics are still ubiquitous. Verboten activities listed in Google’s article include, among others:

1. Purchasing links (any form of purchasing, including free product in exchange for a link)
2. Link exchanges (I'll link to you from my site if you link to mine from yours)
3. "Large-scale article marketing or guest posting campaigns with keyword-rich anchor text links”
4. “Using automated programs or services to create links to your site”
5. “Links with optimized anchor text in articles or press releases distributed on other sites. For example:There are many wedding rings on the market. If you want to have a wedding, you will have to pick the best ring. You will also need to buy flowers and a wedding dress.”
6. “Low-quality directory or bookmark site links”
7. “Forum comments with optimized links in the post or signature, for example:Thanks, that’s great info! - Paul paul’s pizza san diego pizza best pizza san diego”

Remember, even if you don’t do any of those types of activities for your clients, they may have done this with other companies in the past, and it could still negatively influence their site. The affected sites experience significant drops in organic traffic when their site gets picked up by Penguin. Google also published a post detailing steps to take to remove toxic links. Due to the SEO importance of eliminating toxic links, Search Optimizers reviews our clients’ link profiles to determine if a significant number of unnatural backlinks are attached to their sites.

While I am a huge proponent of white hat SEO practices, I recognize that some businesses aren't savvy enough to realize they're paying a fraction of the cost for services that employ unsavory linking practices. I personally had to dissuade a former employer from hiring a firm that was significantly less expensive based on the admission that they would buy links to our pages and build links between our pages and the pages of their other clients. 

As I told the president of the company I was working for, it's not worth risking the penalties Google will impose on us. Sometimes we can go back and wipe those links clean from sites, but it can be incredibly difficult to improve a website's standing with the major search engines. 

5 Ways Small Businesses Can Boost Their Google Analytics

There has been a lot of talk about how Google's Hummingbird algorithm had changed Google Analytics over the last several months.  I can find a lot of high level conversations between industry gurus, but there hasn't been a whole lot of basic nuts and bolts that is easily understood by laypeople.  In fact, a friend of mine asked me just the other day if I could explain SEO and Google Analytics.

So what does Hummingbird mean to small businesses?  Hopefully not a whole lot if you're engaging in above the table, white hat SEO.  Hummingbird is meant to reward user-friendly, frequently visited websites.  How do you ensure your website meets those criteria?

1. Write engaging, helpful content that your readers can easily comprehend.  Regular Joes don't speak in tech-talk, they don't understand industry-specific acronyms, and they certainly can't handle pages with solid blocks of text.
2. Make sure your website structure makes sense.  Think about your website from a user's perspective.  What will they search to find each page?  From the landing pages, what questions will they have, and how can you provide clear links to that information? 
3. Links should go to pages, not photos, whenever possible.
4. Draft a strong call to action (CTA) on every page so that prospective clients know what you want them to do and how they should do it.
5. Put articles and white papers about your subject matter on your website.  It's better when you commission these documents yourself so they angle the products and services you want them to, but third party content will serve your purpose.  Customers trust white papers more than any other type of content.  If you position yourself in the same line as "unbiased" professionals, you're more likely to sway the masses.

Creating a Successful Website

Seth Godin has a pretty great formula for putting together a successful website.

I wish I had his blog post, Q&A: What works for websites today?, to refer to when I was designing a website eighteen months ago.

It's really hard to juggle the aesthetics and the expectations of the client but what marketing professionals know is that our personal investment (and that of the brand) doesn't mean a thing.

What matters is what the people who visit your website think, and ultimately if you build a user-friendly site with rich, useful content you'll find success.