You have an internet marketing strategy in place for one simple reason: you want your ideal customers to find you online. More specifically, you want your customers to find you on Google, because, well, Google has the largest market share – like most of it actually. So when Google releases information about a new update, we want to make sure you know about it, which is what it recently did. We’re here to tell you what you need to know and understand about how it could affect your overall internet marketing strategy.
If you aren’t really interested in the technicalities of it all, then here’s the gist of what you need to know:
Google’s new Panda update should have a direct impact on helping small businesses do better (Search Engine Land).
That’s good news if you’re a small business owner with an internet marketing strategy in place. What we don’t know is when exactly this new “softer” Panda update is taking place, only that Google is “working on it.”
What is the Panda Update?
When you type a word or phrase into Google you get a list of search results based on Google’s special formula that rapidly searches its database of gazillions upon gazillions of websites to give you a top list of the most relevant results. The Panda update is a kind of filter that the search results run through so that sites with poor quality content – content that is not helpful to you at all – is kept from appearing in the top search results. Matt Cutts, Google’s head of web spam, explained that this new softer Panda update as it’s being called, has one specific algorithm change; and that a “Googler on his team is specifically working on ways to help small web sites and business do better in Google search results.”
What does this mean for your small business?
If you’re a small business that is using your internet marketing strategy do get found on Google, then you want to make sure you are consistently providing high quality content because this is what Google is paying attention to. This is how your prospective customers are going to find you when they search online. Your next question might be, “what is considered to be high quality content?” It’s content that attracts your customers based on what they are searching for. You can find out what they are searching for by doing some keyword research, focusing on a keyword strategy, and building content around that. It starts with having an active blog, relevant offers on your website, and good SEO practices in place.
What you shouldn’t be doing is keyword stuffing on your website pages or blogs, writing about what you think is important versus what your potential customers are actually searching for, engaging in black hat link building practices, and definitely not getting stuck with any kind of duplicate content.
Where should you go from here?
If you have an internet marketing strategy in place that uses good SEO practices and you are consistently feeding Google quality content by blogging relevant information your ideal customers are searching for, then just keep doing what you’re doing. Even though we don’t exactly know when this new Panda update will begin to roll out, we know that it will. Google will continue to make updates, most of which will be unannounced, and we'll continue to keep you informed. As a small business just continue to provide quality content and constantly evaluate your internet marketing efforts.
If you don’t have an internet marketing strategy in place or you’d like to make yours better, contact us or download our free offer below about hiring an internet marketing agency.
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