SilverServers Old Hat Seo Tips: Issue 2

Here at SilverServers Inc in Kamloops BC, we like to keep our SEO tactics as effective and up to date as possible. There are so many ways to positively (and negatively!) affect your website's PageRank, it can be a full time job just to stay on par with what Google and other search engines are looking for. In issue 2 of our Old Hat Seo Tips, we'd like to touch on a tactic that is still used around the web today with varying success; Content syndication.

Chris Brock's Old Hat SEO Tips: Issue 2

At some point, writing articles about your relevant business topics and submitting them en masse to info directories was a great way to build some authoritative back-links to your domain. Quantity of offsite links trumped quality and the more sites that posted your content the better. Of course it was considered best practice to try and focus on high quality content-aggregator websites, but failing publiciation on them meant there were 10 more sites to submit to.

When we think about how a business' reputation is spread through word of mouth, content syndication is a bit like that. Website after website linking to yours builds an aura of trust and authority around your domain and brand. Getting your opinions and examples of your expertise displayed on other authority sites is a great way to be viewed as an authority yourself. The power of a positive word of mouth reputation is almost untouchable by other traditional marketing strategies. A positive reputation can help weather a customer service storm. On the other hand, a negative reputation can cancel any positive marketing actions your business has taken to climb above.

The same concept underlies how Google views the reputation of your website. Get in with the right people who prove they know what they're talking about, and Google will trust their word that your website walks the walk as well. But should some of those people lose reputation themselves, suddenly their word is not as powerful anymore. Hang out with enough of the wrong people, and the world will start to question your quality and authority simply by association. This happens daily on the web and can be caused by many factors.

Perhaps the website you've been posting to has changed their hosting platform or code quality, producing a negative affect for their site. What if a new owner/manager decides to take your aggregate target in a new direction, one that is no longer beneficial for your business and the content you post? Maybe a new tech expert at their company has some shady ideas about SEO and causes their site to be blacklisted? All of those options are very possible and happen more often than you'd think.

Everyday, Google cares more and more deeply about the quality of the websites that your links reside on. Often one black mark can do significant damage to your ranking. Make sure that any sites you submit your links to are worthy, powerful and credible sites that will keep their quality of PageRank for long term. There is nothing worse than your links being stuck on a site that Google has lost favour in, possibly with no way to remove them!

If you missed it, learn about keyword stuffing in Part 1 of Old Hat SEO Tips. Otherwise, find Part 3 to learn about website analytics software! For even more articles, check out the SEO Tips section of our website!