When the brand spanking new Internet appeared, when experts referred to it as the information superhighway, the processing of a world’s worth of information at mach five speed thrilled the masses.
Whenever an innovation presents, opportunists lurk, leer, and then pounce with the well-calculated precision of a race car. One group of early Internet opportunists, search engine optimization companies and professionals, knew that more eyeballs are always on the first website pulled up in a search, just as they are on the fastest car leading the others in a race. So, they finagled shortcuts for advancing sites to the head of the pack, by flat-out loading content with:
- Keywords galore
- Hyperlinks/Backlinks
- Re-spun content
Google Calls the Shots
Yup, the superhighway race was rigged, and in the digital media world pre-Panda/Penguin, when the checkered flag was waved, websites with content created specifically to increase ranking advanced, because the site with solely the most eyeballs on it won.
Content suffered.
In 2012, Google came to the rescue by recalibrating the Internet with Panda/Penguin algorithms, which monitor websites for these questionable practices, the same way NASCAR governs races. The result? SEO blew a major gasket.
Many websites suffered; so much so, a website was developed specifically to track how Panda impacted some popular sites. According to Hitwise data, some typical impacts were:
- eHow.com suffered at 29% decline in outbound Google Traffic
- Answerbag.com suffered an 80% decline
- LiveStrong.org suffered a 57% decline
How has SEO survived post Panda/Penguin? Anchorage, Austin and Atlanta SEO companies, and all others in between agree, this fork in the road necessitated SEO to lean in.
Up to it’s Eyeballs and More
After brief pit stops, some SEOs took the first exit off of the information highway, others made u-turns, and others regrouped and got back in the race by focusing on creating better content, keeping Google’s algorithms in mind.
When post Panda/Penguin Google crawls a page, it not only takes into account how many eyeballs have been on it, but also gauges a user’s interest by calibrating:
- How much time a user spends on a site.
- How many pages/posts are visited per site without leaving it, known as a bounce rate.
- How many users clicked your site once they found it, know as a click-through rate.
Using this knowledge, advanced SEO techniques kick up the horsepower of a site. And a good web design company, like a good pit crew, will make sure a website has all the elements needed to increase the odds of a good ranking.
Properly Fueled Sites
Sometimes the car at the back of the heap, because of its color, unique bodywork, reputation, or driver, merits eyeballs too. The same is true in web design, and, as Atlanta SEO companies know well, a site that is interesting, smart, and composed of quality content is sure to zoom ahead of the lessers.
Outdated SEO methods were a quick fix but lacked staying power due to poor spammy fuel. As opera legend Beverly Sills stated, “There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.”