Everybody wants to know how to be ready for Google Penguin updates. It's been a hot topic since Penguin 1.0 was introduced a little over a year ago in 2012. Google Penguin updates 2013 are coming, some say have already come, depending on who you ask. Search Engine Land says that what's coming out shortly from Google will be Penguin 4.0. But, Matt Cutts, the spokesperson from Google's web spam team, tweeted on Friday that this would be Penguin 2.0 with the previous refinements of the Google Penguin update being just sub releases. All of this penguin stuff is confusing so let's dig in! ALSO, if you find this short video helpful and want to learn more what to do to to succeed amidst the Penguin 2013 update, check out this article on Search Engine Watch.
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Hello, and welcome to our video on the Google Penguin updates. I'm Chad Hill, and I have Adam Stetzer here with me as well.
Good afternoon, Chad. Everybody wants to know how to be ready for Google Penguin updates. It's been a hot topic since Penguin 1.0 was introduced a little over a year ago in 2012. Google Penguin updates 2013 are coming, some say have already come, depending on who you ask. Search engine land says that what's coming out shortly from Google will be Penguin 4.0. But, Matt Cutts, the spokesperson from the web spam team, tweeted on Friday that this, in his mind, would be Penguin 2.0 with the previous refinements of the Google Penguin update being just sub releases.
Very confusing topic. So today, we want, for our viewers, to try to really simplify and talk about how you can be ready for these Penguin updates from Google.
Yeah, that's a very good question, and one that I think you either can choose to worry about daily or take the high road, which is what we're going to talk about today, and really figure out how to stop worrying about the Google Penguin updates and really get focused on what matters, which is, you want to start with writing content for your real audience.
So of course, the search engine will always come along and look at what you're creating, and putting together, and how people are finding your website. But if you focus first and foremost on your audience and writing compelling content or creating compelling graphics or videos for your audience to answer their questions, that really is going to get you ahead of anything that the Penguin update might be looking for.
And I like that advice a lot, Chad, because if you read a lot of these blog posts and forums, some of those comments are just not very constructive. You'll read things like, if you're worried about a Google Penguin update 2013, then you obviously aren't using the right tactics. And I find that not to be constructive. Maybe you just naturally worry.
Maybe you have a lot riding on it. Maybe your payroll is dependent on a SEO, or your e-commerce site would die without great rankings. So, I don't find things like that to be particularly constructive. So, I like what you're saying. You're saying, put the end user first. Make content marketing a priority, so you're actually answering questions you know your users have, which will make you be useful.
I think the natural response to that for some of our viewers will be, well, how can I trust that Google sees that. Isn't that sort of the build it and they will come message that Matt Cutts has been telling us for years? The more useful your content-- it's basically link baiting. And you've all read about link baiting.
And I don't really love the term because it very quickly gets into, what is link bait, other than very useful content. Useful content leaves footprint because people have good time on sites, and they can see that on analytics. People share that content, both in social as well as through backlinks, quote, "going viral," and whatnot.
And people talk about it in other places. It gets you brand mentions. So, I think really the idea of link baiting really comes down to building good content, knowing your audience, answering questions, being useful, and the footprint will follow. It is a bit of a slippery slope though, because you don't want to get stuck in the mindset of, just you build it and wait.
You do need to actively promote it. But no one says promotion's a bad word, right? So I think that's probably what you're going to talk about next. Absolutely. I think the next thing you really want to think about is, then, is promotion of not only this content you're creating, but of your brand. And so one of the ways that a lot of people are promoting their brands these days is with social media. So, some people again may, if you read blogs, say, well, is social media a signal or not a signal.
And I think what we would say here is that, regardless of whether it's currently in the algorithm, or it's going to be, or it is tomorrow, will be a few months from now, it's a great way of promoting your company so that people look for your name. And we know that that is a factor. You want to make sure that you have brand recognition.
Because the diversification that that brings you, again, is going to make you less susceptible to any Google Penguin update that comes out. So your point there is a good one. Don't be obsessed about whether using social media is technically in the algorithm or will help you with this Penguin or Panda update, but view that as something that you would use to spread the word naturally any way to get people to your excellent content. That way, it's a win-win.
If it's in the algo, great. You've got that signal. If it's not, you're still using this as a very efficient mechanism to promote your content. And that ties back to your first point. You create great content, but then you do need to promote the heck out of it. You got to get out there, because it is a big internet. Absolutely. And then, I think, like I said, in addition to just the diversification that you get from social media promoting your brand, there are a lot of other things that you should be doing to diversify your overall marketing. So, if you take a step back from SEO and organic rankings, you want to make sure that, if there's opportunities to test and explore advertising like pay per click or retargeting through pay per click, that you're starting to build in some other ways of generating leads off of the web.
And that also may include thinks like email marketing. And you want to make sure that you're incorporating those, because if, for whatever reason, the day comes where you wake up, and you do lose that ranking, and your payroll is dependent on that organic ranking, you want to have some back up plans, some plan B and Cs in there that you're able to go to while you figure out what's happened with your Google Penguin update results.
And I guess a few things to close with, Chad, are things you probably should not be doing. And most people know this by now, but it's worth saying. You should not be buying links. You should not be doing things that Google blatantly says are against their guidelines. They busted a couple high profile link selling networks in 2012.
They busted another one in 2013, a very large group of Russian domains that was selling thousands of links. Matt Cutts comes out, he was at the conference last month promising, we're watching some of the big network link sellers and spammy operators. So, whether you believe that PR or not, it just doesn't make sense to be caught in that when there's so much good marketing you could be doing.
That doesn't mean you can't outsource services. Obviously here at Semify we believe that's the most efficient way to increase your online presence. But as you do, make sure you're asking the right questions. What's the audience value? How can you demonstrate to me that this is intended for real audience and really solves a problem, really is content marketing? How can you measure that? And if you ask those questions, you'll find the right vendors, and you'll succeed.