Last year, Google introduced its new Penguin algorithm in an attempt to decrease the search engine ranking of certain websites that relied on black hat and spam type SEO techniques. This algorithm has undoubtedly changed SEO for the better.
For those who are new to the game, search engine optimization is a collection of highly sophisticated techniques that are used generally by Tampa internet marketing professionals to help a website achieve a higher ranking in the results generated by online search engines. Up until recently, a search engine like Google would sometimes reward a website that may have employed questionable SEO techniques with the highest rankings.
Often times these websites did not need to provide quality content to get noticed. They usually were not well written, or even really talked to their target audience. Instead, all they needed to do was stuff as many keywords as they could to get the page to rank.
Thanks to the Google Penguin update, this kind of practice is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Rather than rewarding internet marketers who use cheap SEO techniques, Google Penguin now provides higher ranks to websites that place quality content front and center. Aside from making it easier for Tampa SEO firms and internet marketers that were already focused on providing high quality content, this update has also provided a much more pleasant experience to the consumer that is looking for something specific within a search engine.
Gone are the days of success coming to those who could manipulate web crawlers with cheap tricks. Instead, today’s top publishers will have to rely on providing quality content that people will be attracted to. Whether they intended to or not, Google has hit the reset button.
SEO firms that have always been in the business of providing high quality content can now compare themselves to the same standards that publishers did in the golden age of magazines and newspapers.
The goal is to keep the audience invested, and that is what Google’s Penguin update makes possible once again. If you are unable to produce quality content that will hold interest and keep them coming back, then you more than likley not be rewarded with a higher ranking.
At one point, SEO was something that could be mass marketed. Now Google Penguin has taken SEO, and turned it into something that needs to be crafted carefully for each business. What was once a cheap piece of furniture made out of particle board is once again more like a hand carved table top that cannot just be thrown together by an amateur.
Who will benefit the most form Google Penguin? You the he audience.
Google is in the business of making sure they stay relevant, while providing the consumers who use thier search engine the ability to find what they are looking for without wasting their time. Whether search users are looking for an informative website, or they are curious about a specific product, they will find it a much more pleaseant experience behind an article or blog post that is well written, and not full of tricks designed to fool a search engine.
At the end of the day, professonals who approach SEO like a craft will succeed, while those who stick to the older methods or questionable techniques will fall behind. As for companies looking for better rankings they can also feel good about providing informative and interesting information that will hold consumers interest, which is a reward in and of itself, especially if they keep coming back again and again.
