Posted by: Na! Not in the universe (although it’s a thought) but we have thought and several better informed more considered professionals have been saying for months that the (almost) manic swing from one SEO strategy to another is a big, big mistake but it still keeps happening.
For months we’ve been seeing people preach the move from linking to the so called “content marketing”, which has seen a land rush to get articles published on the widest range of subjects. Badly written, over optimised articles too and to add a further silly twist, these articles are crammed full of links, about which Matt Cutts had hinted – no, not hinted, specifically said were against Google’s guide lines.
In simple terms (if my memory serves me correctly), first there was linking and link farms got many, many people in trouble. Then there was article and PR sites, who I recall bemoaned Google’s penalisation, but let’s face it, the only reason they were there was to create links.
Then came the rush to manipulate blogs. I’m sorry for saying that, but whilst many sites have great and genuinely good, valuable blogs there have been many with poorly written articles that have been over optimised, which will now be getting another swath of people in trouble following Matt Cutts declaration that Google has picked up on the fact that Blogs are getting more spammy. Keep your head down for the next round of penalisations and another knee jerk swing in approach to promotion. It may because of unrealsitic expectations from clients but that is a whole other topic.
The truly professional promotion companies though, take a balanced view, using good content, carefully and fully optimised, genuinely original and interesting content, a website that represents the company it promotes and is kept regularly up to date as well as a range of links including a few good “no follow” links for referral traffic and possible leads, a few good “follow links”, a nice blog written by the principles or staff of the company who are genuinely interested in the subject and offline marketing that compliments the online strategy.