With the Many Algorithm Changes by Google, Are You Still Keen On Doing SEO?

Hi everyone. It's my pleasure to once again welcome us to our Community Timeout on Mondays after a few weeks absence.  Because of a few other commitments that crept in, we couldn't feature this very important segment of our weekly schedule for the past month. However, after considering how these features have helped in educating the community for the past couple of months, I have decided to once again bring it back trusting that it will do us all a great good.

Google updates and Content marketing

Today, I want us to take a look at the latest buzz in the world of search engine optimization. I'm sure that no matter who you are or what you are doing online, you definitely must have heard of the different algorithm changes that Google has pushed into the market in the recent past.

  • The first to hit the SEO world was the Panda updates implemented on February 24th. This particular update took a swipe at sites with low quality content most of which were content farms, hence it was called the Farmer update.
  • Next, was the Penguin update which was basically aimed at link-farms. This literally took down a whole lot of link building networks, over throwing the search rankings of many sites and bringing uncomplimentary results to many internet entrepreneurs.

The effect was so devastating that many SEOs were left wond

18 Comments
  1. I don’t do a lot of SEO anymore Chadrack. I mean if I’m promoting a product and I want it seen then I’ll implement SEO into my content. I mostly just do my best to continue building relationships and introducing people to my content and it’s been very well received in that respect.

    I still think SEO is important to some degree but it’s not the end all that most people think it is. I go for the quality content myself.

    ~Adrienne

    • @Adrienne,

      I agree with you all the way! I’m an SEO frick but for one, I’ve learned from the beginning that optimizing content is not what many has made of it today. Thanks to Google and its various updates. Those who are now been affected by these updates are the ones who want the easier way (easier?) round but have realized that it is not what they thought.

      Valuable content is actually what SEO is all about. The search engines don’t want to show search results that will not benefit searchers. They also want to be valuable to their users and that can only be if they returning results that benefit the searcher. But beyond writing quality content, letting the search engines know what your content is all about through implementing basic SEO elements like including keyword phrases, is necessary.

      I must say on building relationships, you are doing great on that. It’s a specialty I would love to learn. Frankly! In face of the recent changes in search engine ranking factors, I think you will be doing great in the SERPs when social ranking factors are taken into consideration by the search engines.

      Thanks for your insight.

  2. Hey Chadrack

    I still have the Yoast SEO plugin on my blog but I’m with Adrienne, I tend to focus less and less on SEO these days.

    Google has wanted quality content all along but as many people didn’t heed this, Google made the updates. I guess there’s always going to be people out there who want to get around the system rather than working with it.

    • @Tim Bonner,

      I’m with there on Google wanting quality content all along. What they are doing today is not just what they discovered now and want to implement right away. It has always been their business plan but the number of those who wanted to game the system were just too much and now they are coming out strong. I personally so a more humane environment after all this. Google is definitely going to invest in more of technology to fight this menace.

      But may I ask why you do not focus more on SEO these days? Don’t you think this is really the time to do more of SEO seeing that the negative guys are being pushed out of the market opening more opportunities to those of us who are doing our best to stay within the rules?

  3. Hi Chadrack, it is an interesting question you ask, but ultimately I feel that basic SEO has never changed. Try and get a handful of good links to your site from reputable websites by producing great content that people want to share via social media.

    If you have a good website, your readers should help you do your SEO by sharing your content and linking to you.

    Obviously if you have a site about income, make sure the keyword income appears on your website somewhere, but don’t overuse it.

    SEO is just common sense really, I think many people over think it too much. Algorithmic changes are usually just to catch out spam, and shouldn’t really affect sites with good content much at all.

    That’s my view anyway 🙂

    • @Christopher Roberts,

      You have totally expressed my view on this subject!. No matter what others want to believe, I still maintain that SEO is not going any where, not in the near future. Writing good content is great, but what Google is doing right now is a total endorsement of SEO best practices. Remember Google’s business is nothing but search engine. They are only strengthening this area because they know that’s only way their business can make more impact.

      Ignoring SEO because of what is happening is ignoring a good source of free traffic. Like you said, SEO is common sense.

      Thanks for joining the conversation and it’s really a pleasure to see you around again.

  4. With the post constantly changing in the middle of the game, I am not sure it is still worthwhile to spend so much time doing SEO.

    A better model is going the way of my friend, Adrienne, and build relationships with people in our industries.

    Stop trying to make Google love you. Make people love you instead and Google will have no choice but to love you too….

    • @Yeremi Akpan,

      I frankly love your angle, make people love you and Google will have no choice but to love you too! Yea, that’s really good. I agree that creating content for people and not the search engines is paramount. For one, it is people who spend the money and not search engines.

      However, we must understand that Google is not really changing the posts in the middle of the game. Search engine optimization has always remain the same with Google from the beginning. The problem is blackhat SEOs who have abused the system. The same ranking factors Google has used 3 or 4 yrs ago are still what it is still using. What is happening right now is flushing out of the chaff from the wheat!

      My problem with just building relationships as touted by many bloggers is the fact that those you are building relationships with are actually the same bloggers whose purpose is also to build relationship with for the reason of trying to sell to you just as you are. There is a big flaw here which many bloggers do not see. Please understand me, but I really don’t fancy the idea of someone trying to build a relationship with me just because he/she is thinking of the financial gain out of that relationship. Relationships should be for mutual understanding.

      This is one reason why many bloggers are struggling to make ends meet. You spend hours blog hopping and posting comments. Those same bloggers come around to reciprocate and the circle continues everyday. What is your ROI? Well, many will point to the joy of connecting. Good!

      But, depending on your niche, if you, in conjecture with building those relationships, do a little SEO and begin to drive some more traffic from the search engines, you will be pulling another stream of ‘connection’ who possibly may be searching for a solution to a pain they have. Now if you content in any way have the solution they are looking for, you have gotten possible financial client!

      This is really my logic in encouraging every blogger to never abandon SEO. I hope I have been able make my point. Or, what do you think?

      P.S. You may just want to read my latest post referenced on the commentluv link below!

  5. Hi Chadrack,

    To be honest, I don’t really care about all those algorithm updates from Google because If you care, It won’t let you do your work in an intelligent way. The basic concept of SEO is that write quality, long and unique post by targeting a good keyword, promote and build backlinks for that post. This is what I have been doing on my blog.

    Thanks for sharing Chadrack.

  6. Hi Chad,
    Generally speaking – People are becoming more fed up with Google, yet they still have a monopoly over the search market. So people (especially if you are a SEO with a large client base) then you unfortunately don’t always have an option for high traffic and conversion but to use Google (even with adwords).

  7. I think SEO is still a important aspect for the success of any business or website, but along with SEO one should also focus on building your trust among your audience with the help of popular social networking sites.

    If you build your trust then I think you won’t need SEO at one time and everything will work as you desire.

  8. SEO is very important,,people say SEO is dead but it is just a lie….Google does make some undesired changes but then one have to learn the new tricks

  9. I never knew what SEO was until my PR was updated (to be frank) 😛

    Later I started to follow SEO rules, learned a lot about SEO but as the algorithms are changing now and then, the new SEO myths are revealing day by day to the open world.

    Man! This Algorithms are driving many bloggers crazy. Can’t expect what happens next. Who knows, there may be another update called Deer, Tiger, or Hyena would be released soon from Google’s Zoo. 😛

    So better to stay alert.

    Thanks for the share 🙂

  10. As much as your brain might tell you to stop focusing on SEO, that’s not a great strategy. It may be getting harder and harder for blackhats to score big, but the mid to very whitehates still have a very easy road – it’s getting even easier, really. Whether you like that or not does not matter – Google is a force that is attracting billions of visits a month. Think of all of the business that could be generated on, essentially, autopilot from just a search engine – it’s pretty impressive.

    With the numerous advancements in technology (more and more are coming), search engines will only become more and more powerful – you have to optimize for them or heed away from the internet.

  11. I have never been big on SEO. I usually let my audience spread the post and hopefully, that lets Google know that the content is quality. Whenever I update consistently, I tend to see better results.

  12. There are folks who still make a lot of money doing SEO. However, it’s NOT something I’d like to continue in. The way Google is going, I doubt if they’ll maintain their position in 5 years’ time. Does anyone remember when Yahoo was king? And do you guys remember what happened when they insisted on the paid inclusion model? They fizzled out and lost their pride of place.

    Google is just one website (albeit a very dominant force). I have learned (the hard way) never to depend on just one entity for something as important as my site’s traffic. With all the options we have today, I believe that traffic should be just a by-product and NOT our focus (That is, if we want to remain in business for long and stay profitable).

  13. Hey Bro,
    SEO is really becoming so boring these days, i no longer understand at all, you are their friend today and will eventually become their enemy tomorrow, so its good to have other plans.

    Just like Akpan said above, don’t go making google to love instead, earn those love from people. Google is just a piece of script.

    Thanks for sharing Bro and have a great weekend.

  14. I haven’t ever paid much attention to SEO on my blog. Just a wee bit. I use my blog as a place to share what I’ve learned and also to engage people. So, SEO wasn’t a concern. However, because of a lot of good track-backs from other bloggers, my blog hits 3 to 4 rating on Google. I don’t know how, but it does it sometimes.

    I am more focused on building a product these days, but the importance of SEO is one that many need to pay attention to, especially with all the changes.

    Thanks,
    Donna

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