Mea culpa. I have been remiss. I have several new articles on the SEMRush blog that might be helpful to online business owners.
First, let’s talk about the most recent, 7 Popular SEO Myths — Busted .
- What happens when you write a post that flows into more than one page? What are the proper rel=”canonical” codes?
- Do <bold> and <strong> have different significance?
- What happens when you prepare your pages for search spiders?
- Should you be guest blogging and where?
- Does freshness matter?
- Is any backlink a good backlink?
- Changing your domain is a bigger deal than changing your site’s architecture.
If you are curious about any of those topics, I have the answers.
You may also be interested in where I think search is headed in 2014, How to Write Engaging Content that people actually want to read, or how to become an SEO in 2014.
I’ve gotten lots of great feedback on these articles. I hope you’ll find them useful, too.
Best,
Pat
Your 7 SEO myths or questions are best for bloggers to ask from SEO experts and make their SEO strategy search engines’ friendly. After the introduction of Google’s Hummingbird update, it is very necessary to focus on the quality of contents and say good bye to automatic ways of contents and linkbuidling because this act can penalize your website. Be generic in your SEO and get organic traffic as well as ranking.
Hi Steph,
Well… Many bloggers can’t afford to pay us SEOs. Many of them have to do it themselves, so I do my part to help. And yes, if they’re not paying attention to the changing environment of our industry and the changes that Google continually hurl at us, they can get hurt. But that’s why I try to help those people as much as possible by giving them ideas about what to do or telling them what they should stay away from.
Any automation will most definitely hurt more than help, but I’m not sure what you mean by “Be generic in SEO…” Do you mean not to over-optimize? Then, I completely agree. I really try not to optimize much these days. Content should be for the reader, not for search bots. And yet, a good title and description are still important to give bots an idea of what the page is about. Plus, it’s an opportunity that has little to do with SEO at all…
Your description is your opportunity to “sell the click,” since that’s what shows up in the SERPs. Otherwise, unlike in times past, if you mean “soft” SEO by generic SEO, then we’re on the same page.
Thanks for your comment!
Pat
Great post Pat! A lot of small business owners in particular are “scared” of SEO but you can attempt to do it yourself if hiring a professional is out of the question. Hopefully this will prompt more to jump on board the SEO bandwagon!
Thanks, Maria!
An yep… We can hope. But SEO has been a source of skepticism for the Web population in general, with all the Pandas, Penguins, and Hummingbirds flying and rolling around. And the distrust is true whether the person is a long-term Web marketer or a brick-and-mortar business owner, who isn’t accustomed to the ways of the Web. They tend to look askance at SEO.
We have to explain to those folks that a really good SEO understands the underlying mission of search. When that’s the case, most of the changes that pop up aren’t a surprise or a concern. You know in your SEO brain why search engines do what they do. A good SEO understands what they want and deliver that over time, to reach a goal.
For example, I’ve been doing unique content years before Google started getting its knickers in a twist because of dupe content. Right? I mean, we white-hat SEO types already know what’s inside a search engine’s “mind” and act appropriately, long before any of these changes happen. SEOs like us aren’t likely to feel any significant pinch in clients’ accounts, no matter what the search engines do.
Blackhat types are kind of bi-polar. They’re all jazzed when they find a scheme that works, and are proud and happy. Then, when the hammer drops on them, it’s like “It wasn’t us; it was Google!” and they’re in depression. They have to come up with a new scheme. ‘Course that’s probably not an issue, since they’ve been testing and tracking and working on that next scheme all the while.
I mean, why work harder toward what you know will be a short-term result? It’s like a constant chasing of tail. That doesn’t mean that I think those folks are “bad, horrible, terrible” people. When it comes right down to it, are they doing anything morally objectionable? Is it possible to mortally sin when it’s in regard to an algorithm? No! Still, I just can’t see the logic behind the time sink those schemes can cause. AND, they’re helping to propagate the B. S. about SEO.
That’s part of the reason we have such a hill to climb when it comes to getting potential clients to trust us. We have to convince them that SEO is a long-term strategy that really works. I just tell people, if you’re not in this for the long game, hang up the phone right now. I can’t help you. Then, I ask them if they understand that they’re building their online future. They get it.
Thanks for your comment!