I don’t know if it happened to you too, but this month when I did not see any Panda Refresh official notification I felt disappointed. What the heck, Google, after three months in row with Panda Updates around the 20th of the month you don’t send us our monthly rate Panda checking dedicated hours?
I suspect they forgot it, because they were too busy with Interflora.
Interflora… It was a long time the world of SEO wasn’t so intrigued by a manual penalization. From the morning of February 21, the posts about Interflora have literally blossomed like flowers in spring. Let me list the ones that I found more useful:
- Interflora SEO Penalty Analysis 2013 by Martin MacDonald, who was the first presenting the case and justifying the penalization to the aggressive outreach Interflora did toward bloggers;
- Interflora – What Really Happened? by Anthony Shapley on David Naylor’s blog, who – supported by what Matt Cutts himself tweeted about the news – explains how the cause of penalization must be found in the massive bought of paid links via infomercials in regional UK newspapers;
- Aaroon Wall could not miss in this list with his post, quite obviously “turning the tortilla” against Google, claiming how many Google products do exactly the same that Interflora did.
- Does this mean that Google will penalize itself in the next future: probably yes, says Danny Sullivan on Search Engine Land;
- Interflora – Bad Link Penalty Analysis by Link Research Tool, which probably is the post that will resist the pass of time, as it is not just about the Interflora penalization, but a wonderful example of how to do a links’ analysis;
- Interflora, Brand Building and the New Role of the Search Agency by James Carson and published yesterday here on State of Search, which is a post all about the real lesson we can learn by this case.
Manual penalizations, algorithmic penalizations… before I confessed you my “pain” for not seeing any Panda Update this month (ok, I know it, February is not officially ended yet), but – #justsayin – don’t you agree with me that an EMD Update roll out in the regional Google should be close? It’s already six months since its release in Google.com. And what about Penguin 4.0? Five months since its third release.
Maybe it is true what Vysibility says, and we should dump the anchor text and start focusing on co-citations, which is something more and more we all are talking about in open and private SEO groups and communities.
What is certain is that many sites will suffer far fewer headaches if only their technical SEO was better, if it exists obviously.
About this so many time forgotten evidence talked John Doherty at the last edition of SearchFest 2013 last week:
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About the technical side of SEO wrote Kristina Kledzik on Distilled too or our own Paddy Moogan here on State of Search.
And we should not forget two great posts/webinars hosted by SEOmoz this month:
Advanced WordPress SEO: Permalink Changes & Multilingual Implementation by Nick Herinckx;
Mobilize Your SEO: Making the Most Out of the Mobile Search Opportunity by Aleyda Solis.
Finally, we should never forget to use our own SEO metrics to understand the ups and downs of the strategy and tactics applied, as well explained by Will Critchlow on SEOmoz.
Technical SEO, then, is not just limited to “classic” technical SEO. All the contrary! It has an outstanding value for a discipline like Content Marketing too, as well explained by Jonathon Colman (again) at Searchfest:
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Content Marketing… even if you are the archetypal example of the old school SEO and just hearing “Inbound Marketing” you feel uncontrollably convulsing, you cannot deny that the synergy between SEO and Content Marketing is an explosive combination, which, if well managed, can mean only one thing: success.
For this reason I warmly suggest you to download the 2013 State of Content Marketing study and white paper by Copypress.
Or to learn from real Content Marketers like Gregory Ciotti what does storytelling really mean in Internet Marketing and why it matters.
I urge you also to start understanding why – maybe – your content sucks:
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and find out how making it better for your users and your brand:
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Because Content Marketing is not simply writing gazillions guest posts all around the Interwebz.
For instance, let’s take data visualization. It may end up being a waste of hours spent for nothing if we don’t know its secrets. Knowing them we can create content like this amazing one.
This list of sources curated by Jonathon Colman can be of help for you, as it was for me, in making of Content Marketing not just a buzzword, but a real ally.
As it can be of help not reading just SEO blogs. Diversify you Google Reader’s feeds. A good choice could be adding The Verge, which can be considered a great example of Content Marketing Strategy perfectly applied. Check these two posts, for instance:
You’re not gonna Like it: Facebook’s new search struggles with the real world;
I used Google Glass: the future, but with monthly updates.
Ah! Before I forget it… Authorship, Google+ and Knowledge Graph. Three articles caught my attention and, possibly, also yours:
Eric Schmidt confirms Google+ content is given search priority, as explained on The Drum;
Larry Page On How To Become Part Of The Google+ Knowledge Graph on Search Engine People;
Google+ Promotes Publisher Tag for Local Listings by Mike Blumenthal.
If you are an SEO, knowing deeply Google is essential. And those three posts are reminding us that Google is changing, inexorably.