Lost rankings in Google, Try a more holistic SEO approach

[goodroi]

15 years ago, life was simple. There was a small handful of ranking ingredients and it was very easy to isolate them and figure out just what the search engines wanted.

Now everything is interconnected and much more complicated. You need to realize that SEO is less about search engines and more about smart internet marketing. SEO, PPC, Direct Traffic, Email, Branding, etc. are all related and impact each other.

If you have panda, penguin or any ranking problems, I do feel your pain and understand from my own personal experience just how much it sucks. The best way to fix the problem is to be productive and work on the core issues and not just the symptoms.

Here are some examples:

Having Penguin problems?
You might think it is only about your links, you might be wrong. Your content probably also has problems. Huh? If your content was crazy good and had so much value found nowhere else then you would have attracted more quality backlinks and had a much smaller chance of penguin problems.

Having Panda problems?
You might think it is only about your content writing, you might be wrong. Your user engagement & keyword research probably also have problems. If you had better keyword research you wouldn't have just written one anemic page for your keyword. You would have seen the bigger potential to create an entire section of robust content to fully explore the keyword and its many long term opportunities to better engage the user and avoid short stays and high bounce rates. Making your website more valuable and attractive to users would have helped you decrease the chances of panda problems.


By combining all the tools available to you in a holistic marketing strategy, you can create a powerful synergy to lift your website out of ranking purgatory.

Use or start and email newsletter to create strong usage signals for your website and to open up communication with your users to know what content to create.

Use PPC to discover new keywords for your organic SEO content writers.

Have your organic SEO content writers tell your PPC manager about temporary traffic opportunities that they don't have enough lead time to rank organically.

Consider an offline branding campaign to increase direct traffic and help usage signals. Worst case you will make yourself less dependent on Google.

Have your link builder talk to your organic SEO writers to create new pages designed to open up partnerships with other relevant websites and develop links that will actually generate converting traffic.


IMHO SEO is less about search engines and more about smart internet marketing.

[JD_Toims]

Great post and points made!

[martinibuster]

Use PPC to discover new keywords for your organic SEO content writers.

This is important, particularly how it's executed. For example, the most common method is to incorporate the keyword phrase in the title tag, header, in the content and perhaps as a full or partial anchor text from within the content. That combination, either fully or partially in that manner is Search Engine Bait. But it's not really useful content. The search engines have become better at detecting that kind of "seo content" that's made to satisfy keyword requirements.

That's a disservice to yourself and your business. Think a little deeper about what the intent of those keywords are, what is the goal, what is the site visitor trying to accomplish and then create content that helps them accomplish that goal.

[gouri]

martinibuster,

For example, the most common method is to incorporate the keyword phrase in the title tag, header, in the content and perhaps as a full or partial anchor text from within the content. That combination, either fully or partially in that manner is Search Engine Bait. But it's not really useful content. The search engines have become better at detecting that kind of "seo content" that's made to satisfy keyword requirements.

When you say header, do you mean the header or a heading, such as an h1. I know that you know the difference, but I am asking because I sometimes see even people who are very good at SEO use the terms interchangeably.

Also, when you mention full or partial anchor text from within the content, would that be from another page on the site or from the page itself, maybe as an anchor link (link to a certain area on the same page) or a link to another page on the site?

[martinibuster]

Yes, meant heading. Was 11:30ish AM and rush-typing to make lunch for the family. :)

The typical SEO formula is that people will link out to other pages on their site from within their content using keyword anchor text. In the similar mindset, the other formula applies to guest articles, which is to link to their own site from within the content of the guest post PLUS to another site that is perceived as authoritative.

Rote is a word that describes a way of doing things without really thinking about it. Somewhere along the line it was passed down, read in a blog post about a study of top ten rankers, enshrined as a pro-blogger best practice, that a patent stated something and it's consequently done that way, by rote, ever since.

You and I know the origins of such practices. But really, if in the old days 100 links per page was the crawlers limit does it REALLY mean a page must be stuffed up to and no more than 100 links on a page? Really? Rote methodology must be challenged. It's how one stays ahead.

[JD_Toims]

Rote methodology must be challenged. It's how one stays ahead.

Awesome, Incredible, Great Point!

[gouri]

martinibuster,

Thanks for clarifying about the heading.

The typical SEO formula is that people will link out to other pages on their site from within their content using keyword anchor text. In the similar mindset, the other formula applies to guest articles, which is to link to their own site from within the content of the guest post PLUS to another site that is perceived as authoritative.

I have done these things.

I agree with what you are saying about rote methodology.