After all of the new changes at Google, many of us who help clients with SEO held our breaths, hoping that all of the work we had done over the years wouldn’t be lost. I’m happy to report that all of my clients have done well with the new changes and one client even emailed me to say, “Just wanted to tell you that Google’s new algorithm has a lot of love for the site and the SEO you did.” Hooray!
For those of us who practice the art of creating and maintaining good sites, we had nothing to worry about. Google has made some great changes to reward good content and web development. I have always preached that developing appropriate content is the way to a “natural reward”. If the content is good and provides a service or information for your visitors, you are contributing to the “greater good” of the web and Google will reward you for this. So the first “do” on the list is to CREATE GOOD CONTENT.
The 2nd “do” involves web structure. As a web developer and programmer, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of smart web design and development. My motto is, “You gotta keep them separated!” What I mean by this is you must use CSS to house your design elements and use HTML for site structure and content. If you keep the design elements out of the page, the bots that scan your pages will see what your visitors see and be able to get to the heart of the content. Also, I think you should include appropriate meta tags in your header. Some experts say you don’t need title and keyword meta tags anymore, but I disagree. They may not help your rankings on Google but they do help categorize your content and some search engines still use the information. It’s a nice touch to a site and shows that you thought about what the page’s purpose is and what is about. So “do” number two is GOOD WEB DESIGN!
The 3rd thing that will help your Google rank is FRESH CONTENT. I think this is the hardest thing for most people to do because it takes the most time and energy. Fresh content usually means blogging which means RSS feeds (or some other feed) which means social media and bookmarking sites will pick up your content and your link building will gain momentum. Most people trying to get to the top of Google know that lots of links to their site usually means lots of love. But it’s not just the number of links to your site that’s important, it’s type of link. You want good quality links from sites that host similar content as you do. Quality content and blog material will help you get to this point.
Regardless of what Google does with its algorithm, you will always make progress and work your way to the top if you implement these three simple but effective strategies:
I have to say that a few months ago I had no idea who Justin Bieber was. After seeing him continually hit the top ten trending topics on Twitter, I decided to dig a little deeper to see what made this kiddo such a big deal.
I started by going to Google and typing in his name. I scrolled down a bit and saw his site: http://www.justinbiebermusic.com/ and clicked on that. I kept looking for his Disney or Nickelodeon affiliation and couldn’t find any. I clicked on his video to watch him and hear him sing. I thought, “This is a cute kid with a decent voice. I see why all the girls like him, but why is he so DARN CRAZY WILD popular?”
Okay, so he’s not from one of the kid factories: Disney or Nickelodeon. His mom and dad aren’t rock stars. His uncle isn’t Simon Cowell…hmmm? Well, here’s the story in a nutshell. His mom thought he was cute and talented and I guess encouraged him to put videos of himself on YouTube. He became a YouTube sensation. Some music peeps saw him and decided he should be looked at more closely. He got a manager who thought he was talented and then they went to work to try and get a record deal. Somewhere along this journey, the doors slammed in his face over and over again. The manager and Justin were told that since he wasn’t already known through Disney and/or Nick that he wouldn’t “catch on”. Finally, Usher thought he was worth a shot and thus a star was born. (I think there are a lot more famous people and details to this story, but you get the pictures!)
Anyway, the point is his manager saw something in him – his appeal through social media – which makes him a star like no other. A little nobody kid from Canada used YouTube to launch himself to the top of the food chain and now he stays on top by using his Twitter account to connect with his fans? That is true genius if you ask me.
Besides this, he’s been on David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel and The View in the past few weeks and he is quite charming. He’s a true salesman. He knows what the people and his fans want and he gives it to them.
I think we can all learn a little something from Justin Bieber here. Being on top takes work and it takes talent and it takes dedication. I checked his twitter activity today and he seems to really connect with fans pretty often. And I’m sure he has publicity folks helping him actually update his status, but he is in touch with his age bracket and he understands how to use the right technology to stay connected and to keep sales up.
Justin Bieber has broken the mold. He wasn’t a Mouseketeer or a hit on Nick, he was an average kid with a nice voice who knew what he wanted, went for and got it. And for those of you who don’t think social media is going to “catch on”, you should probably busy yourself by reorganizing your 8-tracks or perhaps by hanging out with all of those recording studio managers who slammed the door in Justin Bieber’s face because it’s going to be a long wait.
