Why Stalking Google Is Key To A Good SEO Marketing Strategy
Generally speaking being a stalker is not a good thing. However if you are responsible for your business’s SEO, stalking Google is key to a good SEO marketing strategy. Our website development company has been offering tips and advice for our customers for years and one underlying theme over the past few years has involved the power Google has over SEO.
Today we will delve more into that idea and explain exactly why stalking Google like paparazzi is not only a good idea, but also becoming a necessity if you want to be on the cutting edge of successful SEO.
Some things never change
There are many things in the world of SEO that have changed over the past few years. Yet at the same time, there are a few fundamental aspects that have not changed.
- Importance of the user – For the most part the importance of the user has not changed, primarily because of Google. Google’s clients are the users. As a business, their goals are to deliver the best experience possible to their client, which in this case means providing an unparallel search experience.
- Importance of good content – It used to said that Content is King in SEO. That is still mostly true although really the User has taken over the bigger throne regulating content to more of a Queen status. However it is still vitally important because in the SEO world it is all about fulfilling the King’s needs which is often useful information (content).
- Importance of technical SEO – There has always been a need for technically sound SEO practices. This is one area that has changed in that some of the practices themselves have morphed and evolved, such as the need to optimize images or that content should be using HTTP compression. Regardless of the changing rules or practices, being technically sound in what you are doing won’t change.
How Google influences change
Being the search engine with the largest market share certainly has its’ perks. The largest is their ability to influence the way people approach search engine optimization to ensure their business ranks well because basically if you aren’t doing things the way Google thinks is best, especially on the technical SEO side, your rankings with them will suffer.
Reports vary, but most agree that Google has around a 75% global share of the search market. How can anyone afford to miss out on that many potential customers by ranking lower? The simple answer is they can’t.
That is why when in 2013 the Hummingbird algorithm was released the game was changed, by Google. The way they were crawling the web, collecting and indexing data and considering how search was being performed changed the landscape. Sites that don’t follow expected Google protocol are in a position to be overlooked if they can’t be assessed properly while sites that respond positively to the various ranking factors and showcase their value will rank better for searches Google determines match up to their content or purpose.
You should be stalking Google
The Hummingbird algorithm is the easiest example to pull from as it was one of the larger rollouts Google has performed, but like any good business they are constantly looking to improve and adjust their product to benefit their users, some of whom are your potential customers.
For people who use SEO that means we should be actively studying what Google is doing and try to anticipate the direction they are headed so our SEO plans can coincide with expected changes rather than being forced to rush changes while playing catch-up.
Ways to stalk Big G:
- Read the Google blog
- Follow Google news stories including big hires and companies/tech they acquire
- Visit the Office Hours hangout for Q&A along with topic discussions
- Pay attention to patents
- Sift through rumors
By taking some time to perform a little research on a regular basis you can follow changes and ideas as they happen. The bottom line is that stalking Google is a key to good SEO marketing strategy because riding the wave of change is a lot more fun than paddling behind it playing catch-up, which a lot of people are doing with their SEO.
Be sure to check back every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for great new Lounge Lizard blog articles.
