Every two years Google throws in a big change to their algo. They pick the latest thing they don't like and blow the crap out of a bunch of sites. Lots of people get hit.
This process scares the bejeepers out of me. In fact, I lived in fear of the algo for years to the point I wouldn't even meddle in anything less than pure.
I've attempted to make my main site resistant to algo changes. Initially this started out by being whitehat, that's no longer the case. I'm not blackhat, I simply do what works now, and what I expect to work in the future.
Let's discuss specific techniques we can use to keep our sites immune from the next algo shift. How do we build sites so that our rankings don't drop at Google's whim?
- my backlinks are relevant. Not all are from within my niche,but if not, they are from niches that touch my niche - either up or downstream, or sideways. And by relevant, THEIR backlinks must be relevant as well - otherwise the site isn't relevant. For example I've got links from statisticians in my industry. And there's a lot of them - no SEO company has ever gone near this entire community. I wallow in it.
- I get links where SEO companies can't get them. One at a time. Quality over quantity, blah blah blah. What I'm doing is not leaving a traceable footprint. SEO companies must automate across industries in order to scale. I don't scale anything - I am an expert and do everything one-up. Even if a competitor paid to have an SEO company do one-ups, they still have to find someone who can do the one-up work AND is expert in the vertical. Not going to happen.
- Directories only count if they fall into three categories. 1) ultra high quality. that means there are only two left. DMOZ and BOTW. Do both. BOTW is paid, just pay it. DMOZ, I already posted how anyone can get a dmox listing if you care to read the link forum. 2) niche, directories related exclusively to your niche. 3) regional directories. Directories in your town or state.
- Buy links. But don't buy links where anyone else buys a link or using methods anyone else uses. Call someone with a clean site that doesn't sell links to anyone, ever, and strike a deal to be the first.
- never do the same thing three times. Twice, OK. Three times, nope. If you're going to do paid postings, do it only a wee little bit. If you're going to do directories, do only a wee little bit. And then STOP. Do something else. Research or dream up some other way to get links. This isn't easy - and it's darn tempting to throw another shovel full of dirt on the pile - but you're digging your own grave.
- network. I call my competitors and chat. AND share. I learned that trick from someone in my industry who calls and feeds me info. No SEO company is going to do that. And Google can't track it, there's no footprint. I just got an email right now from a direct competitor. Wants my advice on whether to buy a BOTW listing. I will answer him honestly. (he's also given me some wild insider information on one of my competitors online activities in the past)
- network in areas that touch your vertical. I just got offered a link in an article that's liable to go frontpage of a national ISP. Because I called someone not directly in my niche, gave them some value and asked for a link. They wouldn't give me a link, I got this offer instead. It's better.
- do nothing for Google's benefit. And keep onpage SEO to an absolute minimum. I am the village idiot of SEO. If google does a hand review of my site, I want to look like someone who doesn't have a clue. I don't want them to smell SEO. So I don't link out, I don't do sweet in content links (or rarely). I don't use nofollow - I've never even heard of nofollow. I don't even know what their guidelines are - that's how dense I am. I build my onpage stuff to look like it's 1998.
More precisely, I don't follow anything technical. The smell test is, "does this make sense to someone else looking at it?". If so,then it's quality. I can't outwit Google. Instead, the pointyheads heads at Google can then figure out how to make my site rank. They don't always do so - but by taking this approach if I'm not ahead of the curve, at least I'm not ON the curve - I'm diverse enough that I don't get whacked.
I also have to work beside my competitors who use SEO companies. The SEO companies know more about link building generally than I ever will, and about onpage optimization, and so on. I can't compete. So what have I got? No SEO company knows more about my niche than I do, nor do they know more people in my niche. They are SEO experts. I am an expert of my vertical niche. Lots of what I do centers around that.
So in terms of content, I create calculators on stuff nobody else has even thought of. I write articles on topics others won't do. Articles take me 1-3 weeks to write and sometimes involve programmers, accountants, and lawyers.
e.g. If you're a mortgage broker, you'll write an article on las vegas mortages. Or cheapest mortgage rates. I would never have that stuff on my website. I would rather pay a statistician to analyze recent mortgage trends and find out if it was better to lock in your rate for 1 year or 5 year period. Or compare how amortization schedules vary from different countries (interest on mortgages is calculated differently in different countries BTW). 99 mortgage brokers write articles targetted at search terms. I write articles that nobody searches on, but my visitors find interesting and can't be found anywhere else - I leverage my expertise.
I'll do all that other stuff generalized stuff that others do, but not on my main website.
- listen to blackhats, spammers, affiliates, anyone that you want to have a lack of respect. Watch what they do. Clean it up, brush it off, make it respectable. I'm not going to give specifics, but my best, most 'white hat' ideas come from the nether regions of the web. Spinning - it's automated and it sucks. Can you make it automated but not suck? Article directories, low quality crap. Can you do it with high quality? I'm an expert in my niche and well networked, maybe I can.
- One site? Hardly. You will get whacked. It's not if, it's when. I guaran-freackin-intee it. I have at least two sites that have seperate backlink profiles and content. They rank OK. They are ready for a push for the day when I do get whacked. Behind that, I have a half dozen old, well backlinked sleeper sites ready for strong content and a push, sites I've gathered or bought through the years. Behind that I have numerous one trick pony websites that help diversify my traffic. Combinations of {color}{widget}{demographic}{niche} make for interesting sites. I am not algo proof - I am algo resistant, with a backup plan. I'm not that smart, but I'm prepared.
In short, leverage your expertise that SEO companies don't have. Do lots of different things, and not much of anything specific. Network. If you leave footprints, make them small, and leave lots of different profiles. If Google dials down one profile, you don't get hit hard. If Google dials up another profile at the same time, you'll benefit.
that's some of what I do. What've you got? How can we make our sites proof against an unknown future algo change?
Note to mods: resist the urge to modify my title to something more palatable to the masses :).
I am algo proof
