There’s been a lot of doom and gloom written about SEO in the last few weeks or months. In fact I would argue that I’ve probably never seen tech bloggers so pessimistic. Of course they have reason to be concerned, and Google has been somewhat erratic of late to be fair.
First of all there was of course the dreaded Google Panda which was a while back now, but then this was followed by the introduction of local results and social search which altered the shape of the SERPs, and the introduction of Google Penguin which seems to have hit a lot of websites across competitive search terms and left a trail of destruction in its wake.
On top of this the big wigs at Google have also seen fit to simple de-index a large number of sites, often without warning – most recently taking apart all of the blog networks and simultaneously ending a huge number of businesses and dreams.
It seems you can’t rely on Google to stay the same anymore, and there’s no telling what they will do next. So extreme is all this in fact, that some people have gone as far as to suggest that Google are being purposefully unpredictable to force people to use their Google AdWords instead of relying on SEO and thus help increase their profits. It may seem extreme, but it’s certainly possible.
It’s Not All Doom and Gloom
So yeah, it’s fair to say things are looking a little bleak, and if you’re feeling a little directionless and unsure as to what the best way is to promote your site in this new environment then you’re not alone. But that’s not to say it’s not all bad news, and of course in any situation like this there is a silver lining.
When God closes a door, he opens a window – it’s time to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative and stop messing with Mr In between (whatever that means…).
Don’t Panic!
First of all, it’s important to remember that there is nothing to be gained from panicking or sulking. If your site has taken a hit, or you’re feeling a little lost, then you can either moan about it, or you can just get right back on the horse and start rebuilding. Guess which is more productive?
The Silver Lining
So now that you’re back with us, where’s that silver lining I promised? Well really it’s obvious – if so many big sites have been knocked down the SERPs then that creates opportunities for other sites.
Go and search for ‘Make Money Online’ or some other popular search term and what comes up? Empty forums, place holders and cyber squatters. In other words – rubbish. And that’s of course because all the sites that were at the top of the listings have been hit and forced to page 3. These are all that’s left.
And this basically means that there’s a huge void and that your competition has been blown out of the water. It’s time to adapt, learn the new rules of SEO and get in there and take advantage of this situation. In theory it’s never been so easy to get the top spot for ‘Make Money Online’ because there’s no competition.
More Silver
And that’s not all either. Because it’s fair to say that if all this dross is currently at the top of the search engines then the current algorithm isn’t working. Google’s going to need to change its tact pretty soon if it wants to keep its visitors from leaving and heading over to Bing, so they’re going to be looking for sites like yours to fill those spaces.
And people are forgetting the changes that have happened recently that can help bloggers and webmasters. Social search for instance is a great tool that anyone can take advantage of to make themselves more visible online. The future is bright people, so chin up and get marketing!
