Search Engine Optimization was never complicated. Marketers in their greed to make quick bucks resorted to crooked path. Soon, this crooked path was termed as ‘black hat’ and ‘grey hat’. In reality, there wasn’t any hat at all. Of course, these unruly marketers attained the higher SERPs. Finally, where are they are now? Probably, they are busy following the simple path of SEO.
Panda Scenario:
When Panda rolled in Social Marketing became synonymous with SEO. Suddenly everything about SEO was to share over Social Networks. People mailed their friends and families to share posts of which they had no idea. Marketers were so desperate for sharing their content over Social Media that they started hiring people to share.
Penguin Scenario
When Penguin came, marketers and SEO specialists went hay way. Link building strategies, which seemed spammy or unnatural, were penalized. Sites like BMR (Build My Rank) were affected drastically. Moreover, some sites, which unintentionally, gained links from spam sites, were also brought down in ranking. Suddenly everyone started to talk about the perfect link building strategy. People who were affected showed the path of resurrecting their site. From SEOmoz to amateur bloggers, everyone proposed how to survive Penguin.
Future Scenario (Elephant/Lion/Cheetah etc)
I don’t know the name of future algorithm update from Google. No Matter what the future algorithm is named, one thing is for sure; as time passes, more and more emphasis will be on readers. SEO will become history. When a new update rolls in and everyone is afraid, what do you think is suggested? When some blogger or SEO analyst talks about resurrecting a site what is the point being made? It shouldn’t surprise you to know that they all discuss about old SEO which in fact is the real SEO.
Useful Articles
So what exactly is SEO?
SEO is not a complete science in itself. Therefore trying to provide a definition will be a futile attempt. However, we can approach the other way by discussing ‘what is not SEO’.
Link building:
If I tell you to write exclusive content and wait for readers to link back to you then that would be foolish of me. However, the above statement is real link building that can be possible only in Utopia. Link should be built manually but in the right manner. Directories should be the least priority as they are now frowned upon by search engines as for now. Guest posting, for instance is considered the best link building strategy. Apart from links, you also get traffic.
Anchor text is vital when it comes to link building. Some prefer to focus on a keyword while others randomize their anchor text. I, on the other hand differ from both the school. An anchor text describes the post therefore instead of looking at it as keyword consider as a two/three word description for your post. The rest is search engine’s work.
Keyword % in post:
Seriously, I have been looking for SEO specialist who can prove that a certain percentage of keyword is necessary to rank better. Some webmasters and marketers consider that such and such % of keyword is necessary in a post. Furthermore, the placement of keyword also seems to require particular position like in the starting paragraph, and at the end. Such practices might be true but the question is, ‘Are they necessary enough to spoil a site’s readership?’ I don’t think so. Ensuring that a particular keyword is inserted within the post will suffice and the rest taken care by search engines.
Other practices:
A comment cannot be made by ‘Payday Loans’ unless it is the name of a person. Several people spend hours and hours on commenting with keywords. This might prove beneficial to some extent but is it worth the time? Definitely, the answer is in the negative.
SEO is simple and the rules are easy. The only problem is that it takes time to see results. If you are one of those who wish to gain instant but temporary results then you might be offended by this article. However, patient and true practitioner of SEO will remain undeterred no matter what sort of algorithm may come. Therefore, the final question is, are you into SEO?