Search engine optimisation went through many changes during 2012 as Google made sure that practices needed to change.
As a result there has been a greater effort by many SEO consultants and businesses to provide rich and quality content to improve the user experience. In fact there has been little choice as the penguin update and further panda updates have continued to affect previous practices and the need for companies and businesses to embrace change. There has been continuous communication bandied around about is SEO really dead.
I think many will agree that SEO will continue to be an important element but as part of an overall Inbound marketing strategy rather than being your sole online strategy. As we have seen with the Google Penguin update of 2012, those businesses that purely rely on Google as a their only source of traffic will be vulnerable to further updates that could result in loss of rankings and traffic at anytime. The more savvy business owners will be embracing an overall Inbound marketing strategy that uses many other channels to drive traffic to their website. What has been apparent in the last year is that quick wins of old for SEO are likely to damage your website in the long term with networks and low quality links being a prime example.
There are still quick wins that can be part of an overall longer term strategy that include the following;
Google Authorship
Google authorship has continued to grow in prominence over the last year. Google now uses this to authenticate a user to a particular piece of content. By building up your Google+ authorship, you are able build your online profile. You are then able to be associated with all the content you create and publish online. If you are a passionate marketing enthusiast and you are publishing content on guest blogs, Google will begin to see you as an authority. It is becoming increasing important to have authorship when looking to rank successfully in the Google SERPS. Rand Fishkin at SEO Moz had previously predicted that Google will make it very hard to do great SEO without using Google+. Though there are no proven correlations to this at present, there is certainly enough evidence to suggest that Google authorship definitely has benefits and the importance of having authorship will be more important in the future.
Produce Great Content
Providing great content is more important than ever. With guest blogging being the major strategy for link building at present, creating great content is an essential part. Blogger outreach is a way of reaching out to fellow blog owners in an attempt to have your content published on their blog. Why not craft a great piece of content rather than focusing on producing lots of average articles. Produce a great pitch that you can provide to a high authority site that will have far great weighting than publishing lots of articles on average sites. As already discussed, link your article to your Google authorship so Google can see you as an authority on a given subject. Think about creating better engaging content with the use of videos and inforgraphics.
Build Strong relationships
Reach out to other blog owners and find high authority sites within your niche that may accept a guest post. Build relationships that are on-going. As we have discussed why not be associated with great content and build lasting connections with fellow blog owners. Rewarding loyal users which will help to increase your brand interaction. Why not also ask your key influencers to add you to their partner pages. Have customer testimonials for your products or services on your website. Consider asking fellow business owners that you associate with and friends and families who have websites to link back to your page.
As we have discussed the 3 quick wins above are closely linked to each other and are a great way to help your overall SEO strategy. Building strong relations, producing great content and branding your business online will continue to be a prominent feature of a longer term strategy, but these wins can also be achieved relatively quickly.
Guest Author Bio
This post was brought to you by Daryal Begley of Magnetize PR. They specialise in providing Inbound marketing services that include SEO consultancy, conversion rate optimisation, content marketing, PPC and a guest posting service.
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