Picking up where I left off with my 2012 Internet marketing predictions, I want to discuss what I refer to as the “new SEO.”
Search engine optimization is no longer something that any ole’ affiliate can just learn in a mini-course and then go out into cyber land and start gaming it an hour later. When you think about it, that’s what most online marketers are building their entire business on — trying to manipulate the algorithms that determine who deserves to sit pretty in those top spots on page one of the search engine results pages (also known as SERPs).
This is a very dangerous and unsteady foundation from which to build your Internet business around.
All it would take is one more Panda-like update and everything you worked so hard for could come tumbling down. Notice I still said work hard. Yes, you can work your butt off, but still be doing the wrong things. Focusing all your time and energy on trying to cheat the system by manipulating the ranking process to rank quicker for keywords that you don’t necessarily deserve to rank for in the first place, is bad business.
Internet marketers, and especially the affiliate marketing crowd, tend to slip into this industry-wide funk that has everyone obsessing over gimmicks, tactics, loopholes and limited time opportunities.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want any part of TEMPORARY success online. To me, that would be worse than not succeeding in the first place. Now more than ever, I find myself examining my various websites and Internet businesses with a magnifying glass, trying to uncover any mistakes I’ve made that could pull the rug out from under me as the SEO game continues to undergo rapid changes.
Luckily, I always end up with the same sense of confidence that if anything, my sites would only stand to improve and become even more profitable in the next generation of Internet marketing. Why do I think this? Simple…
User Experience Is The New SEO
One thing I’ve always done well since I began online a few years ago, is that I constantly asked myself what it would take to ensure I was successful not only today, but also ten years down the road. So while everyone else was encouraging affiliates to build sloppy, rushed, thrown together only for profits types of sniper sites, I was always thinking: “Yeah, but doesn’t the site need to be worthwhile too?”
Despite the fact that I saw these pathetic little review blogs outranking me at first, I never stooped to that level.
It angered me seeing this. And I sure as hell thought about caving in and following suit, but never did — thankfully. Sure, I’ve got a few small affiliate sites that aren’t my best work, but when I compare ‘em to the typical little review blogs out there, they start looking professional and top notch in a hurry.
Because I always saw the big picture — that one day, the old cliche “content is king” would reign supreme — almost all of my old projects still bring in money on total autopilot each and every month. These are websites that I haven’t even logged into in 6-12 months, yet they still rank at the top of Google…
By going the extra mile and publishing worthwhile content (mostly in the form of product reviews), I was able to build online assets that maintain a high value in any Google economic climate. A lot has changed with SEO since I built those original blogs, but guess which ‘thing’ has remained the same…
… USER EXPERIENCE.
That’s right, believe it or not, Google and the other wannabe search engines are still in the business of serving up the most high quality, relevant and helpful webpages to each online searcher.
The take home point is this: if you understand the objective of the search engines and you run your Internet businesses for the right reasons (which will naturally fulfill the wants of any future algorithm update, because you’ll be creating pages and posts that offer an amazing experience to the end user)… then there really is no SEO in your world and you’ve effectively Google-proofed yourself.
In the next post, I’ll continue with this topic, taking a closer look at how you can objectively measure the experience you’re currently providing for your visitors. Until then, check out the free coaching videos I’ve prepared for anyone who joins my CashReview.net email newsletter…
