Who knows what the best SEO strategies are after the Penguin and Panda Updates?

by Geno Thampi - 10/8/2012 6188 Views

The reality of the SEO bloggers

This article is not intended to hurt or directed toward any person in particular, but written based on what prevails in the general SEO industry. The most recent Google Penguin refresh (the second update to the original penguin update) which was confirmed to be live on October 15th has once again sparked conversations about the scariest Google algorithm update. Once again people have started to talk about topics such as “future of SEO”, “post-penguin SEO”, and “search engine ranking factors” etc. Google knows the exact picture on all these topics but it’s top secret. What about the others including the big names such as Rand Fishkin of SEOMOZ, Danny Sullivan of SEL and other popular author at SEO news sources speaking on such subjects? Do they really know about the future of SEO or the strategies that work after the penguin update or any hint on the current search engine factors? Should you plan your SEO strategy based on their words alone? I came across this funny cartoon on popular SEO Editors which shows what they may be actually doing

Today, an article titled “Why Do Some Sites Rank Faster than Others?” by Mark Jackson, published at Search Engine Watch caught my attention. It is a true fact that some websites do rank faster than the others and the article title made it look that it’s not a secret anymore. I spent 30 minutes reading the article and all I could get was “Big brands rank high”! The article ended with these lines “It’s not a simple question. And it doesn’t have a simple answer”. So what’s the point? Whenever there is an algorithm update we can see a bunch of articles and blog posts even from the best sources that just bluff.

So is SEO just a game of bluff and luck? Absolutely not!
If all the ranking factors were known already there wouldn’t be any need of SEO. Like any other marketing strategy SEO takes lots of research, analysis and logical thinking. Though you cannot rely on information provided by infamous SEO people to frame your SEO strategy, there is one who can tell what works after the penguin update or any updates that Google throws at us in future. I call it “Google Analytics”.

Official Google sources would keep you informed about what their algorithm updates are after so that you can make sure that your SEO strategies don’t get your website negatively hit. When it comes to determining if the SEO strategies really work, you need to use Google analytics and webmaster tools data. Google analytics us very much flexible where you can custom filter data to know which SEO strategy has worked. Let’s take press release promotion for example. You know that sending out a newsworthy press release is not against the SEO guidelines. If you are sending out a Press Release measure data such as referral traffic, visit duration location etc. You can also identify the spots which are worthy to publish a press release using the analytics data. With these data you can come to a conclusion if this SEO strategy really works. See the image below which is an analytics capture after distribution of a Press Release. As you can see, the traffic to the website has been lifted up after publishing the press release.

Digging deep i

nto this, analytics has revealed that press release promotion contributed to a rise in referral traffic along with improvements in certain keyword rankings. We would be publishing a complete case study on the effectiveness of Press Release promotion soon. My point here is that, with all the data, we now know for sure that press release promotion is an effective strategy after the penguin and panda updates (with factors such as quality of content and the list of sites where it is published taken care of).
The bottom-line is, don’t get confused when SEO bloggers and news sources ask you questions such as “Is SEO worth after penguin update” or “

what strategies work after the penguin update”. Most of these posts do not come with real test results but is just based on assumption. So, except Google, it is the analytics that would get you a clear idea on what works.

What about the SEO companies? Do they know what works?
This depends on how they frame their services and how they back them up with extra analysis and research. If you are dealing with a professional SEO company, their services would be tested for effectiveness using tools such as Google analytics, rank checkers etc and would be constantly updated. Such companies would regularly update their lists, add or remove strategies based on the algorithm updates and most importantly, they would be very much aware of the SEO guidelines published by official sources.
As a professional SEO company would have real test results, they would know what strategy works rather than just assumptions.

Category :

SEO News

Tags :

Penguin update, Penguin Refresh

About Geno Thampi

Not a born Shakespeare! But I still write articles and blogs to share my ideas and thoughts on SEO and SMO. Being a part of SEO research team of SubmitINme, I keep my ears and eyes open, and the pen ready to grab, write and share trending topics in search engine .... more info