I follow several search engine optimization blogs, and I thought I’d share some observations now that the algorithm changes rolled out in several Google releases code-named “Panda”.
According to Eric Enge of Search Engine Watch, the algorithm changes in Panda affect websites that Google sees as “flat” for a couple of reasons.
One way websites are flat is in terms of content. If there is no original content, the site and its pages fall flat and visitors don’t come back. Google can distinguish if content is copied from other sites or very similar to content on other sites – aka boring. So that content you want to re-purpose, yet not take the time to really re-do it? Think again. Or, have you been poaching topics and concepts from other bloggers? It’s time to get original.
Another way websites are flat is in terms of architecture. We marketers love tracking website traffic and our offline marketing. A great way to track offline marketing such as ads or articles is to create landing pages, so we may have created a lot of them. But, if your website is just an amalgam of landing pages going to nowhere (in other words your pages don’t go deep with drill-down capability to more gooey, rich content), Google is less than impressed.
So, B2B marketers, just when you thought it might be getting easier to attract qualified visitors to your site, we’re back to the basics. Forget spam, SEO tricks and mindless content re-purposing. It’s not about sheer content volume, it’s about content quality. It’s time to understand your value proposition, have a differentiator, be unique and get creative when you generate content on your website.
