Google Immunity

Surviving Google's Dance Dips

Search engines will continue to change site rankings because they are attempting to provide relevancy to its searchers. Change is a given, how to minimize its effects on your business and your bottom-line depends on the business and its owner.

If you can afford to pay at least $50,000 a year to keep your site pages optimized to the latest Google algorithm, then you may be able to keep up as the Google dance changes its beat.

The Google dance is just Google’s way of trying to ensure that its searchers receive the most relevant pages based on the searcher’s query. Isn’t that what you as a webmaster or SEO expert should be trying to do instead of attempting to trick, con, or cheat Google into giving you undeserved high rankings for inappropriate keywords and phrases?

Ranking must be about content and perhaps inbound links from relevant sites. While it may be true that great, optimized content may not provide a top 10 ranking, your ranking shouldn’t disappear simply because Google hiccups. Even if your rankings are effected, why change your content unless it isn’t any good anyway?

Live or die according to Google changes in its ranking algorithm is your choice. If Google says jump, you must ask how high. You can allow Google to dictate how you run your business, Google won’t mind but don’t bet on keeping your high rankings.

Of course, I know some SEOs are happy with the Google dance. The more often Google dances, the better they like it. It means money in their pockets until their customers realize the dance is getting boring and tiresome.

The real question isn’t what Google is going to do but what you are going to do to immunize your business against the Google dance.

It seems to me that content is the answer, will always be the answer for any web site. Content is for humans not for search engines. So you do have a choice: Continue to chase Google or chase real live people. Perhaps Google and people are the same in your mind.

Having well optimized site content is great and necessary but if optimization is your only marketing campaign, you are not only hurting your business but also your customers and those who count on you for their business.

Why not base your business on those customers that come to you from sources other than search engines, especially Google? Any extra income created by top ranking in Google should be used much like most workers treat a Christmas bonus. A bonus should never be counted on for living expenses but only for the little or big extras you could not otherwise afford.

So what can you do to minimize Google’s effect:

Stay in touch with your customers.

Work at increasing repeat sales instead of being satisfied with one-time sales.

Provide an opt-in newsletter for your customers.

Include helpful information as well as product updates and new product information.

Encourage your customers to return to your site.

Keep the customers you have happy and informed.

Google will continue to dance. Do you follow or lead?