You better watch out
You better not cry
You better not pout I’m telling you why
Google bots are crawling around
It’s making a list and checking it twice
Gonna find out who’s naughty or nice
Google bots are crawling around
It sees you when you’re blogging
It knows you want to rank
It knows if links are bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!
Whether you’re new to this whole inbound marketing thing or you now call yourself an inbound marketer, you’ve probably read or heard about the type of practices Google likes and dislikes to help you rank. The following 3 internet marketing tips are important ways to help keep your website off of Google’s naughty list and here’s how.
Write for humans not for search engines
In the search engine optimization world these days, this is probably one of the most important factors to find favor with Google. The new Hummingbird algorithm that Google announced in October verified that when people type in a word or phrase into Google it is now basing its search results on user intent. This means that Google is getting smarter, so bad tactics like purchasing backlinks, black hat link building services or keyword stuffing won’t get you anywhere near page one on Google. In fact, Google will penalize you for it. Instead, your internet marketing strategy should be focused on identifying the questions your potential customers are asking and writing content answering those questions. It’s not just about the words you type into the search bar, but about the meaning behind them.
Content IS King
While this phrase has definitely become overused, it still doesn’t change the fact that it’s true. Every successful internet marketing strategy revolves around relevant and remarkable content (there’s those buzzwords). What does this mean exactly? It means that you should start by having a blogging strategy for your business and start paying attention to your on page SEO. You should be blogging 3 times a week minimum if you want to see results, and even then it could take 6 months or more to gain traction. The reason blogging is so important to Google is that when it crawls your website it sees that you are consistently adding new information because each blog acts as a new page on your website. Pair this with using a relevant keyword topic in each blog and you’re on the right track. Same is true for your on page content. If you focus on a specific keyword on each page of your website, when people are searching for a specific topic your goal is to show up. Because you have fresh, new content on your site, and Google likes what you’re doing, you’re going to rank higher.
Search Engine Ranking
There’s always some new idea showing up about what Google does and does not weigh with more importance when it comes to ranking factors. The best indicator is the data from Moz’s 2013 Search Engine Ranking Factors Survey that gives us insight on the different factors Google uses to rank a webpage high in search.
While we could get into all of the technical jargon, instead we’ll just focus on what it means for your internet marketing strategy. Based on the chart below the data tells us that:
- Links are still believed to be the most important part of the algorithm (approximately 40%) – especially when using quality link building services.
- Keyword usage on the page is still fundamental and—other than links—is thought to be the most important type of factor. Even though Google doesn’t allow us to get as much keyword information as we used to, they are still important – how else would Google be able to determine what people are searching for?
- SEOs do not think social factors are important in the 2013 algorithm (only 7%), in contrast to the high correlations. Basically, social media engagement DOES matter. If you’re business is actively using social media sources such as Facebook, Twitter and especially Google+ you’ll rank higher in Google.
Google is making a list and checking it twice, and not just in December, but all year round. As you start to plan your inbound strategy for 2014, keep the above internet marketing tips in mind. They are extremely important for you to constantly pay attention to so that you are following what Google considers to be best practices in the search world. As Google evolves to become smarter at giving searchers what they’re looking for, you want to make sure you are doing what you can to be found.
If you'd like to talk more about your internet marketing strategy, contact us! We work hard to understand Google and we're ready to help.
