Looking out for the little guy

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is just a big black hole for most business owners. We run around coveting that No. 1 spot like we’re all back in high school competing to be valedictorian — because being valedictorian means you’re the best among your peers, right?

But being listed No. 1 just means you’re first in line; it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re the best. Some sites rank well for a short period of time because people find loopholes in the system and exploit them. Others follow the rules and reap the benefits long term.

In 2014, Headmaster Google put the smack down on cheaters and boosted quality local websites.

This year’s Panda updates and the release of Google Pigeon — oddly, Google’s algorithm updates tend to be nicknamed after animals — mean the most for local businesses. Panda, first introduced in February 2011, favors sites producing quality content.

Rolled out in July 2014, Pigeon is considered Google’s local algorithm. It strongly ties search results to location. For example, if you’re in Columbia, Missouri, and search for pizza, you’ll find listings for pizza places in Columbia without having to include the city in your search phrase.

What this should mean to you

If you regularly write good content, and your site isn’t a pile of junk, Google might place you at the top of your class. But Ellis Benus, local business owner and SEO guru, explains it’s more complicated that that.

“Google says they care about two things: quality content and links to the site,” Benus says. “In truth, Google only cares about the number of links that point to the site. There are unoptimized single-page websites that rank first in every search engine for no reason other than millions of backlinks.”

Basically, Google cares about how many people have linked to your website. The search engine is like a highway, and links are like exit ramps. The more exit ramps you have going to your website, the more likely the search engine is to find your content.

Max Prokell, owner of Venta Marketing and local SEO expert, supports both Google and Benus’ statements.

“Web pages with quality content, correct keyword placement and a solid link portfolio will rank well,” Prokell says. “If you have a well-built, crawlable website with links pointing to it, your Web pages will be indexed and eligible for the search engine results pages.”

I tend to agree with Prokell; long-term success takes a mixture of both content and links. My clients who keep their site flowing with quality content, such as blogs, definitely get more traffic to their site and also tend to rank higher than their peers for the same search terms.

NAP is one thing both local and national experts agree on, and they’re not talking about shuteye. Like all good marketing materials, your website should always include your company’s name, address and phone number.

“In regard to local SEO, NAP consistency across all local directories and choosing the correct categories are very important,” Prokell says.

Rewarding best practices

Search Engine Land asked national SEO experts to review the impact Google’s changes had on their clients’ sites. Most said the updates were all over the place. Their clients’ listing placements were moving daily; some had disappeared altogether.

On the contrary, Prokell says the updates have benefitted his clients.

“As a whole, we have found that our clients continue to rank higher, which can be attributed to the fact that Google constantly updates their algorithm to reward best practices and penalize poor practices,” Prokell says. He also says they’ve found specific areas where it’s easier to improve a client’s ranking with the algorithm updates.

“We have found that local ranking improvements in Google’s Map Pack can happen much faster,” he says. “With the release for Google My Business, formerly Google Places, changes to your local Google page happen in real time. Also, Google has finally devoted a team to their local pages, which means you can actually talk to a real Googler for local support.”

Even with all the 2014 updates, SEO is still likely a big black hole to most. Fortunately, Google is working to reward us local folks with improved listings and giving a leg up to websites producing quality content.