As you know, every year is
always rocked by a plethora
of changes in the search engine
marketing world. The acquisition
of smaller companies by the
Big 3 changes the marketing
landscape as we know it every
month and with every update
to the index that is made,
we hold our breath and hope
that we come out better (if
not, the same) in the end.
So when it comes to the new
year, there are many things
that we should look out for
to stay on top of the rankings.
1. Quality Content: I say
this so often and I cannot
overemphasize this enough:
Content is KING! Search engine
spiders, crawl the net to
find what? Content! Your site
has information (hopefully)
that you want the spiders
to see and include in their
index. By the creation and
publication of quality content,
you give the search engines
more reason to return. You
are feeding them what they
want. In 2006, you should
be finding creative ways to
get your content noticed and
viewed as well as finding
creative ways to publish fresh
content on a regular basis.
A very good way this is done
is through the use of message
boards (hosted on your site)
and by blogs (enabling you
to publish more frequently).
2. Don't Overextend Your
Link Exchange Structure: Backlinks
were a popular way to increase
your rankings fast in the
search engines. The tradition
holds: find a PR7 website
and trade backlinks and you'll
be indexed in Google within
24 hours. That strategy still
holds true and is beneficial
for new websites.
But in my opinion the days
of tremendous link-swapping
are coming to an end. Many
websites have been founded
with the purpose of allowing
you to exchange links with
other websites. This has caused
a massive influx of webmasters
who want to exchange a ton
of links with the hope that
it will help them in the search
engines.
But what really matters when
it comes to links is the amount
of quality one-way backlinks
that direct users to your
website. You want the balance
of links to be in your favor,
that is what leads to success.
Also, there has been talk
of search engines taking notice
of these "link-farms"
and penalizing those who take
part in them. So if you do
take part in link exchanges,
please be moderate in respect
to the number of exchanges
you take part in.
3. RSS and XML: Two new technologies
that have begun to take center
stage especially in 2005 include
a programming language that
has been around for several
years called XML. XML is shorth
for extensible markup language
and is a derivative from HTML.
The main difference is your
ability to create descriptive
tags for your data.
This has led to the advent
of RSS or real simple syndication.
RSS is a way for you to publish
your data to an XML file hosted
on your site. Users subscribe
to your RSS feed via the XML
file and whenever you make
a changes to your XML file
they are notified. It's become
a major technology used by
news agencies and bloggers
alike as a simple method of
publishing your information
across a wide variety of platforms.
XML has also proved useful
with the Google Sitemaps program,
newly released in 2005. The
optional tags available with
the XML sitemap allow you
to be descriptive about the
individual pages on your site
including dates the individual
pages were modified. There
are some small things you
need to pay attention to when
creating this: namely you
have to follow the Google
xml schema, and you have to
be diligent about tracking
and fixing errors in the code.
But if used correctly, it
is a great way to help Google
index the hidden pages of
your website due to javascript
or flash.
4. Stay away from Flash and
Javascript for the time being:
Flash and Javascript are very
powerful tools for creating
dynamic and eye catching websites.
The most prominent problem
with the two technologies
is that the spiders can't
index through them (at least
not yet). This limits your
ability to have the search
engines index portions of
your site. Many have speculated
that the Big 3 are working
on solving this problem, but
for the time being, avoid
or limit your use of these
technologies.
5. Avoid Unethical SEO: There
are a lot of programs out
there that help you to acheive
maxmum linkback ratios in
a very short amount of time.
Some of them are good; some
are bad. In fact, some of
them will waste your effort
trying to post trivial comments
on blogs or trying to maximize
your link exchanges. In my
opinion, you should seek success
in SEM the right, ethical
way. Seek out honest web companies
to exchange a moderate amount
of links with. Post only relevant
comments to forums and blogs
because that behavior leads
to lasting link backs. Also,
don't try to manipulate your
website to make it appear
to have a higher PR than you
really do. Google sees that
one!
6. Last, but not least, Articles:
There is a little bit of controversial
talk about whether it is right
to post articles for free
use in directories. In my
opinion, you are providing
a well needed service to webmasters
and I don't see this one as
a potential loss for 2006.
Information is valuable. And
websites that need content
(especially fresh content)
desire what you do to make
their efforts a success. So
it is natural for your website
rankings to benefit through
backlinks from those articles.
It's a win-win situation.
One other thought on this
subject. Right now, the search
engines can punish websites
for having duplicate content,
and that is an argument that
many will propose. But, the
search engines will usually
only punish you if the html
format of a web site is similar,
not a couple of articles.
So posting articles is safe
for now.
But be cautious. Many lucrative
methods of ethical SEO can
be turned into a problem when
too many people attempt to
abuse the technology.
So that's it. Short, but
informative. SEO is both an
art and a technology that
we have to use correctly for
the right type of success.
Who knows what the year ahead
may bring, but playing your
cards right, you can acheive
success and avoid any pitfalls
that may come.
John Wooton
Author and Creator,
The SEO Journal Blog
http://seojournal05.blogspot.com
johnpwooton@gmail.com
