Just watched an interesting article by SEOMoz regards the changes the Google Panda update will have on the world of SEO. Very clear and precise and easy to understand, if you carry out SEO on your own website or you’re in the SEO field, it’s definitely worth a watch.
To summarise pretty quickly – Panda from Googles perspective was a good result, the end user effectively should be getting more relevant results within the search engine, this may not be the view of a company owner whose seen the website disappear or top positions have gone, but in the eyes of the search engine it’s about the user experience.
The presenter talks about the SEO having to become a strategist, it’s not just about links and great content but it’s now about understanding the effect of all aspects of the website and how they fit and interact together to provide a rich user experience.
Design & Usability:
The site has to look good through the use of graphics to keep a user engaged and maintain a level of trust. He also touches on pages within a website that are aimed at link building and bad spammy content starting have an effect on dragging down the whole website.
Quality Content:
This has been there for years, the need to generate Unique Good Quality content. However the move away from getting unique content drafted that relates to keywords to make sure a page is focused could be on the way out.  Now I’m not suggesting that we create content that’s not unique but it’s all about value to the user, they have to engage and be inspired.
Something they would want to share so your making good use of anecdotes, stories and humour to get users engage and connected.
Metrics:
The search engine will place a bigger relevance to how people use the site, from time on site, to number of pages viewed. Who really knows but it’s inevitable that this type of data starts to drive search results.
What does this mean to ensuring that a website stays in the listings……….
Build sites that engage with the end user and add clear value, develop content that’s unique and encourages people to read and share……… All these factors are going to have an impact.
I suggest you all go and watch the article…..
