Three Things You Can Do To Stay Ahead Of Google's Updates

Google's recent updates have rattled many webmasters. Are your rankings safe? Do you have to worry about Google's next updates? There are three things that you can do to stay ahead of future Google updates.

1. Understand that Google wants the same as you

Google wants to offer web searchers the solution to their problems. Your products and services also solve the problems of your customers. Show Google that your website offers the best solution to a problem.

2. Focus on your visitors and Google will follow

Some webmasters try to create the perfect backlink profile for Google. That's not how you should work. A backlink is a good link if it delivers targeted visitors to your website.
There's only one question that you have to ask to find high quality backlinks: "Can I get good website visitors through this link?"
If the answer is yes, you should try to get the link. Do not worry too much about backlink profiles. If you only create links that are useful for real people, Google will like your links.

3. Diversify

Getting visitors through Google is great, but it should not be your only source. Each new channel that drives visitors to your website will make you less dependent from Google:

• Get listed on Bing and other search engines.
• Get links on related websites that deliver visitors to your site.
• Improve the conversion rate of your web pages and optimize the long-term value of each visitor.
• Develop relationships with companies and people who are related to your business.

Google wants to show high quality sites in the search results. If your website offers compelling content that offers the solution to a problem then Google will give your pages high rankings. Don't try to please Google. Try to please your website visitors.

Offer good content, get backlinks that deliver visitors and offer a valuable website. That will place your business in a secure position.

Link Building And A Natural Backlink Profile: Can These Two Go Together

Much has been said about the importance of a natural backlink profile since Google released the Penguin algorithm update. Is it possible to actively build links and still have a natural backlink profile?

Real link building is more important than ever

The importance of link building hasn't decreased with Google's Penguin update. Actually, link building has become more important than before. The difference is that link spamming doesn't work anymore.
Blasting your link to thousands of sites and fully automated backlink networks have lost their power. Given the fact that these links never were useful to real Internet users, it's remarkable that Google took so long to devaluate that type of backlinks.

Link building is not about manipulating search rankings (surprise)

Higher search engine rankings are a natural by-product if you build links correctly. The main purpose of link building (and SEO in general) is to get targeted visitors to your website.
Backlinks can help you with the following:

1. backlinks can increase the search engine rankings of your site
2. backlinks can help you to get targeted visitors
3. backlinks can help your company reputation

If you focus your link building activities on 2 and 3 then 1 will come naturally.

Link building can lead to a natural backlink profile

The reason why some people think that link building leads to an unnatural backlink profile is that they confuse link building with link spamming. SEO is not spamming and the whole SEO industry has suffered a lot from people using the term 'SEO' to sell their spamming products.

The key to a natural backlink profile is a simple question: "Could the link exist without asking for it?" Many people just don't link to your site because they don't know it or because they don't have the time to research links about a topic.

Help these people who would naturally link to your site by informing them about linkworthy content on your site that is related to their site. Asking the right people for the right reason often leads to much better results than the scattershot approach that is used by many companies.

For the foreseeable future, good backlinks will remain the most important factor in Google's ranking algorithms.