Social Media Soothes Where Google Hits You Hardest
For small- to medium-sized businesses who find their rankings adrift with every new wave of Google algorithm updates, finding a way to generate traffic without having to rely on Google might seem like a dream come true.
As with the latest Google Penguin algorithm update, designed to weed out Internet pollution and spam, Google is getting more specific about how websites are judged on quality. They want quality and relevancy at the top.
Well, as businesspeople and marketers with real content to promote, we can’t complain about that, can we?
The Consumer Shift Away from Google
If we think of Google as a single marketing channel, albeit a big one, we are headed in the right direction — because there are other sources of traffic and link juice, and they are getting more and more powerful by the day. Why not go straight to the source? After all, consumer behavior has shifted towards reliance on social media, as opposed to Google. And Google may help them find specific products like no other source but, through social media, they are getting brand information, recommendations from friends, and reasons to buy.
The bottom line is that people – and by people, we mean 60 percent of the entire U.S. population – use the social networks. So dip in.
Google Penguin: Checklist for Businesses
1. Get people, as opposed to Google, to share your content.
Do you have gorgeous photo galleries, videos, infographics, and other visual content? Put them on Facebook ,Twitter, and Pinterest. Be funny. Be inspiring. Most importantly, be social and shareable.
We can’t stress this one enough. Good, fresh content is something that both people and search engines look for. When you blog regularly, it helps build your brand and gives your readers a reason to come back, but it also forces search engine crawlers to continually index and rank your site. And Google Penguin gives particular weight to fresh, original blog content.
Push out blog posts regularly. Hire an Internet marketing company with great writers to help. Get guest blogs, and guest blog on others’ sites to establish yourself and your blog. Blogging is a big part of how Internet marketing is done these days, and it is simply too big a deal to ignore.
People latch on to visual content. Visuals, particularly video, can pack a whole lot of information into a short time frame. And visual content is infinitely shareable, made even more powerful by both Pinterest and YouTube – two sites that are GREAT sources of traffic.
4. Stay on top of Google+.
In an effort to push Google+ further into the social realm, Google Penguin is giving its content and users unnatural importance in search engine results pages. Take advantage.
5. Optimize your Facebook and other social network profiles.
- Buy social ads
- Interact with relevant businesses
- Make sure people see your URLs
- Fill out all your profile info
- Pull in your blog stream
- Link to your profile on important keywords on your site
- Do newsworthy things and publish them
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What To Do
Google Penguin cares about relevancy, quality, diversity, and freshness — because these are the things that will ultimately make for a better Google search experience. What may seem like an initial hit to some of your Internet marketing efforts may be the best thing that ever happened — because it can push down those that are gaming the system, and help you and your brand rise to the top for being the cream of the crop. Just don’t slack on Google Penguin and social media best practices, some of which we have outlined for you above.
If you haven’t started in social media, start yesterday. If you’re there, do more. Get help — dedicate a team to it. This is a full-time job. Hire a full-service Internet marketing team. Iquarius Media’s number is 407-362-6503. We can:
- Stay on top of your social media profiles
- Start your blog and do exhaustive research, then have dedicated writers create your blog content
- Produce videos and motion graphics
- Custom-fit these and other Internet marketing services to you and your company
If you have questions, ask them. Ask us. You can do that here, on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Google+, to name a few.