The SEO world is in a state of flux right now, and most of us know with all “actions”, there is a very adequate “reaction” (shoutout to Sir Isaac Newton) . By that I mean, although the SEO world is going crazy post-Penguin, and SEO seems to become a more esoteric process, this of course leaves a lot of room for success for the people who decide to figure out how Google works, post-Penguin – if so many cannot figure it out.
Penguin was directed toward link spammers, and although there had been rumors of link penalties for years preceding Penguin, they’re now a very real thing. It was inevitable, and for all the damage it has caused people (none yet for TPM), it has opened up so much opportunity in people dropping out of the game, because they can no longer mindlessly create unreadable content, post it to a site, and send thousands of spam backlinks to be ranking for high earning terms. The way to do SEO now is be natural, and although that has always been our opinion, it is really truly the “only” way now. Here’s a couple tips for optimizing your site for proper SEO marketing in 2012.
1. Always use unique content.
If your blog is full of reposts, reblogs, or any unoriginal content, you are now much, much more unlikely to rank. Google wants to rank people who are naturally building authoritative, helpful, and UNIQUE websites. Why should they rank a site that just copies and pastes articles from others? It only makes sense that Google would want to rank the person who innovates within the field and who writes all their own content.
2. Cut back on keyword stuffing
Keyword stuffing has always been a highly contested subject, and is essentially just, if I wanted to rank for “New York Pizza”, I would use the word “New York pizza” an inordinate amount of times on my website, hoping that Google would see me as most relevant because I keep repeating this phrase – therefore I must “know” something about it, right? Wrong. Google knows that if one phrase or word predominates your webpage, there’s probably something fishy going on. Just be natural in your keyword usage, and you’ll be fine. Keep the “density” of your target keyword to below 2 percent.
3. Anchor text diversification!
Anchor text is one of the most important factors in SEO, always has and will continue to be–as long as links are used to rank sites. Anchor text is just this: Google. I just linked to Google.com, with the anchor text “Google”. Therefore, if my site Nicospizza.com wanted to rank for New York Pizza, I would want to get lots of links like New York Pizza. This is still true, but just diversify your anchor texts. Include blank urls like http://nicospizza.com, or Click Here!. This provides a much more natural link profile for Google, and that is truly the key thing that will really bolster your rankings in 2012.
If you have any questions, feel free to call or email us anytime!
Katelyn is the Editor and Director of Communications and Design at The People’s Marketing. Driven by a passion for language and communication, she lives for educating and exploring the power of human interaction in a technology-driven world. In her spare time she enjoys reading, crafting, and spending time outdoors.
