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13 Nov 2014
Five years ago, search engine optimization (SEO) centered around using keywords and back-links to attain that elusive top ranking in Google. While these aspects of SEO are still important, local experts say that SEO has gotten much more sophisticated.
It is an always-changing algorithm, said Matthew Malone, senior digital strategist at Gravitate, a digital marketing and design agency located in Vancouver. That makes it exciting for the people who are in it, but infuriating for business owners who are trying to focus on what they do.
Beware of back-links
While Google jealously guards the deep secrets of its search ranking algorithm, Malone said that the release of Penguin 3.0 in October had a major effect on some legacy websites. In the new algorithm, he explained, sites that have lots of non-credible back-links links from sites that are not relevant to your site, perhaps garnered by using link farms are penalized heavily by Google.
Maybe you bought those links, and maybe you didnt, said Malone, but getting them removed is really difficult.
He said that Google has a tool that enables webmasters to list the links they disavow, but that is not enough. Webmasters have to try and contact the webmaster in charge of the unwanted links (which in some cases is impossible) and submit reports to Google that show youre doing everything you can.
When it comes to back-links, advised Malone, businesses should pursue those that are editorially given, such as in a blog or an online newspaper article. For example, you can search for mentions of your business online such as an award announcement and ask the owners of that content to give you a link. He said that webmasters should only control about 10 percent of back-links; the rest should be organic, and that quality is far more important than quantity.
Content really is king
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