Before all the Panda and Penguin updates, the majority of the SEO community focused on quantity in order to achieve results. Internet marketers were mass producing low quality content for submission and were targeting high volumes of low quality links to increase their search engine rankings. The search engine changes put a stop to many of those practices but there are still many Internet marketers with the quantity mindset. If you still are working under this mindset, here are several reasons why it's important to shift over to quality.
Reason #1: The Search Engines Reward Value
The most important thing that you should take away is that the search engines want to reward value. They want to help rank websites that are producing high quality content that are valuable for their users. They also want to reward sites that "earn" their links rather than artificially create them. Artificial links have a tendency to come from unrelated sources or from the same kinds of links. That's why you should aim for quality links that are hard to acquire.
Reason #2: Quality Content Gets Shared
Many Internet marketers are also finding that quality actually has a direct impact on their return on investment. Creating high quality content and marketing it to right the channels yields better results than putting out poor or mediocre content. People tend to share content that they find entertaining and interesting to their network.
Reason #3: Authority Is Important for Long Term Results
A site's authority is very important to the search engines. They determine whether a site is authoritative through links, social signals and content. By focusing on quality, your site will naturally gain social signals, mentions and links. If the focus is on using quantity to game the system, you will never build your site's authority and reap its benefits.
Reason #4: Soon, Quality May Be Measured
Google's authorship is a great tool for content publishers to market and publish their content. But it may also be a vehicle which Google uses to measure the quality of a site. There are rumors of Google planning to use +1s, the overall Google+ profile and the number of followers as part of their ranking factors. Rather than react to the changes when they happen, why not future proof for them.
Reason #5: Quality Builds Relationships
Focusing on quality is what leads to relationships, which then leads to links. For instance, guest posting is one of the most effective ways of link building today. For example, http://www.guestblogposter.com is a service that helps Internet marketers acquire quality links through guest posting. But it would not be possible to get these link opportunities without placing importance on quality first. It is infinitely more valuable to produce one piece of high quality content for a guest blog post than going to hundreds of blogs with lacklustre content.
I think we have evolved past the stage where we can submit our website to directories that would submit your site to 1000s of other directories. Sadly, those techniques are still out there but can hurt your rankings and metrics if you do not use them carefully. It is so much better to try and get your website or business some really good PR or good quality links that will bring in genuine and good traffic. These steps might seem a lot harder but the payoff is well worth it. You will see all your metrics improve if you take the time to give the search engines what they are asking for instead of trying to find all the loop holes possible. You will be safe from future penguin or panda updates and your site will be better than ever.
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Reason #1: The Search Engines Reward Value
The most important thing that you should take away is that the search engines want to reward value. They want to help rank websites that are producing high quality content that are valuable for their users. They also want to reward sites that "earn" their links rather than artificially create them. Artificial links have a tendency to come from unrelated sources or from the same kinds of links. That's why you should aim for quality links that are hard to acquire.
Reason #2: Quality Content Gets Shared
Many Internet marketers are also finding that quality actually has a direct impact on their return on investment. Creating high quality content and marketing it to right the channels yields better results than putting out poor or mediocre content. People tend to share content that they find entertaining and interesting to their network.
Reason #3: Authority Is Important for Long Term Results
A site's authority is very important to the search engines. They determine whether a site is authoritative through links, social signals and content. By focusing on quality, your site will naturally gain social signals, mentions and links. If the focus is on using quantity to game the system, you will never build your site's authority and reap its benefits.
Reason #4: Soon, Quality May Be Measured
Google's authorship is a great tool for content publishers to market and publish their content. But it may also be a vehicle which Google uses to measure the quality of a site. There are rumors of Google planning to use +1s, the overall Google+ profile and the number of followers as part of their ranking factors. Rather than react to the changes when they happen, why not future proof for them.
Reason #5: Quality Builds Relationships
Focusing on quality is what leads to relationships, which then leads to links. For instance, guest posting is one of the most effective ways of link building today. For example, http://www.guestblogposter.com is a service that helps Internet marketers acquire quality links through guest posting. But it would not be possible to get these link opportunities without placing importance on quality first. It is infinitely more valuable to produce one piece of high quality content for a guest blog post than going to hundreds of blogs with lacklustre content.
I think we have evolved past the stage where we can submit our website to directories that would submit your site to 1000s of other directories. Sadly, those techniques are still out there but can hurt your rankings and metrics if you do not use them carefully. It is so much better to try and get your website or business some really good PR or good quality links that will bring in genuine and good traffic. These steps might seem a lot harder but the payoff is well worth it. You will see all your metrics improve if you take the time to give the search engines what they are asking for instead of trying to find all the loop holes possible. You will be safe from future penguin or panda updates and your site will be better than ever.
Did you like this article? Please let me know by leaving me your valued comments in the comments section below.
If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar below or by using the "+1" and "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.
As ever, if you want to stay up to date with the latest blog posts, don't forget to follow via Google Friend Connect (button on sidebar), on NetworkedBlogs, via Email (maximum of one email per day), on Facebook and Google+ or by subscribing to our blog feed at:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/DereksHomeAndBusinessBlog
You can also follow me on Twitter @djones1509, Google+ and on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/djones1509
https://plus.google.com/104849975941505117776
Until my next post on Wednesday on how webinars can help your business, have a great week ahead!
© 2013. This article is DMCA protected. Republication is prohibited.
Very sound reasoning and I think it basically covers what I have been doing on my sites for a number of years.
ReplyDeletePoint #4 is the one that concerns me because I too have seen talk of Google moving towards rewarding authorship. I believe they are moving in the wrong direction on that. Put simply, a business will have content that they wish to be associated with themselves rather than a specific individual in the company concerned. The word coming out seems to be that using that approach will be penalised. Yet I feel it is the most appropriate in many business scenarios.
All social metrics can easily be manipulated including G+1. Authorship is a great tool but a network of Indians can shoot a single site and manipulate search engine results.
ReplyDelete