With the Google Panda and Penguin algorithm updates there is a lot of question as to what is going to be an effective strategy for organic marketing moving forward. Let’s just clear this up right now. Links are more important than ever before – but the right kind of links.
It’s not about volume, it’s not about high PR, it’s not even just about quality – it’s about what appears to be the most natural OVERALL link strategy. What does this mean? Let me break it down for you:
- Only all higher PR, authority links in your backlink index looks unnatural.
- If no one is talking about your website socially, but lots of websites are linking to you, this looks unnatural.
- If no one is reviewing your site, mentioning your business name, but linking to you with a “keyword” as the anchor text, this looks unnatural.
- If too many people are linking to you with specific keywords that have higher search volume in your specific vertical, this looks unnatural.
Yes, Google has changed their algorithms – but people have changed the way they use the internet too. People live on Facebook, they share like crazy on Pinterest, they rant on Twitter, they comment on their favorite blogs… people are more social than ever before and they naturally share, link to, comment on and “like” what they see on their favorite sites.
You still need to have a solid keyword strategy. You still need to have a properly optimized website. You still need fresh, quality content. You still need to optimize your website for a great user experience. You still need to build a great navigation for better indexing. You still need to have a site that loads quickly…. You get my point…
BUT, without a good linking strategy, you shouldn’t expect any organic rankings with Google, Yahoo or Bing.
So now what?
Get links. But, get the “right links”. Of course this requires strategic planning that can expert link building team that can properly execute the plan. However, here are some things you should consider:
- Social – Google +, Facebook, Twitter, etc
- Video – YouTube, Vimeo, etc
- Dedicated Blogging – Links from “SEO Friendly” blogs that talk about you in their blog copy
- High End Press Releases – Quality, newsworthy content – submitted to the RIGHT places
- Local – Maps, directories, local business review sites, etc
- Authority Websites – News sites, relevant sites in your industry that have trust with Google, etc
Of course you also have to consider HOW you place your links, not just WHERE. Too many anchor text links looks artificial. So, you have to focus on your brand, your website URL, reference links, business citations and variations of your root target phrases. If you already have too many links for any one keyword, you have probably already hit the radar and you should avoid getting more anchor text links in the future and focus primarily on your brand and variations of your website URL.
Lastly (but not least-ly *ha*)– consider link velocity. Sure, great content, announcements and website specials can create a bump in linking, but overall Google is looking at the link trends and if you have too many links coming in all at once followed by no links for a long time, this does look artificial. You want a link trend that can be trusted over time. Slow and steady wins the race here.
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Thanks for the tips and suggestions and recently I started focusing more on Social signals and link via Videos…
Another tip is to use Flickr for getting links…
Upload all your copyright images/Screenshots on flickr and add your blog/post link in description.. It also helps a lot…
Social is big right now. Problem with Flickr and a lot of social sites is the links you post are no follow or even private so no index – however, clearly the shares and likes still boost your overall visibility and increase the likely hood of a direct click. But still, if you are trying to rank for something highly competitive, you are going to need to get some higher PR/Authority indexable links.
seems Google thinks businesses should now spend all their time pleasing them instead of focusing on their core business. It may come as a shock to them that not everyone is enamored with the idea of sitting around all day or burying your face into smart phone constantly, tweeting, FB’ing, blogging and otherwise shutting out the real world just to please their algorithm. at some point we actually have to run our business and do real things and not every business is big enough to pay a team off egg heads to do all this gossiping and back slapping and mutual admiration society back linking and complimenting.
Google has made organic search engine visibility HARD WORK. It’s not like it used to be. Back in the day you could build a few links to a crappy semi optimized website and shazam, rankings! Now you have to consider 100’s of on-page variables AND get a wide variety of sites linking to you. And unfortunately, unless you do spend the time, Google isn’t going to give you any credit. So, play the game or hire an “egg head” to play it for you, those are your only options.
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