2011 has been a very busy year in the internet marketing world with so many changes and new features, especially from Google’s part. Much has changed and if you want to make sure that your website gets and maintains good rankings and enough visitors, you have to keep up with the latest changes! This week’s article outlines the most important Google changes that you should keep in mind and some tips for success in 2012!
1. Low Quality Websites Are filtered: Google released several ranking algorithm updates (such as the Panda update) in 2011 aimed at filtering out low quality websites from the search results. Scraper websites or websites with low quality content don’t get high rankings anymore. Due to these changes in Google’s algorithm, some websites saw a traffic drop of 75% or more. Tip: don’t try to promote your website with quick-fix solutions – quality is way more important than quantity.
2. Search Has Become Social: Social signals such as the number of Google +1 clicks, Facebook mentions and tweets now influence the position of your website on Google’s result pages. Tip: add social sharing buttons to your site and encourage your website visitors to mention your website on social networks.
3. Search Results Are More Than Just Links: Most result pages on Google show much more than a list of 10 web pages. Search results now include images, videos, news, local results, etc. Tip: use a more holistic approach to promote your website: optimize the content of your web pages, get good backlinks to your website, offer local services, submit videos about your business to Google to make sure that your website gets listed in all possible places on Google’s result page.
4. Page Speed Has Become A Ranking Signal: Searchers are happier if they get what they want as quickly as possible. Although site speed is only a minor factor in Google’s ranking algorithm, it makes sense to optimize the performance of your pages. So, make sure that your web pages load as quickly as possible. Use Google’s Page Speed Tool to assess the speed of your site and receive suggestions on how to improve your website’s loading times.
5. Diversify Your Traffic Sources: Google has about 65% market share and is therefore your biggest friend, but also your biggest threat. Be smart and get traffic from multiple sources. Be sure to create Facebook, Twitter, YouTube pages to get additional traffic. Yahoo/Bing is getting more important: combined, they have a market share of about 33%. If you’re not getting 33% of your traffic from Yahoo/Bing than you should start to optimize some of your pages for Bing as well.
2011 has been an exciting year with many shifts, changes, new features & designs from Google, Facebook, Twitter, AdWords etc. It’s challenging to keep up in this fast-paced environment, but it also keeps it interesting!
With 2012 around the corner, be sure to keep above tips in mind as these will most likely continue to be critical success factors in the internet marketing world!
We wish you a Happy & Healthy New Year!
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