Many online marketers have been frustrated over the past year with the constant need to change their SEO strategies due to constant Google updates and refreshes. Strategies that were the bread and butter of the online marketing industry have lost their value and in some cases resulted in significant penalties for their users. Though the penalties and updates have knocked many down it has also opened the path for new and innovative ways to do Search Engine Optimization.
Social Media
Social Media has become a significant part of Search Engine Optimization strategies. Social factors have traditionally not played as important of a role due to the fact that most of the links created through social media outlets are no-follow. However, these no follow links continue to grow in influence and still can spread significant amounts of link juice to the websites that they link to. On top of this Google’s attempt to push social media through Google Plus and Google Plus Local has resulted in an increase in weight given to their +1s in ranking factors. It seems like this trend will continue in the future as social factors and followings will give more relevance to the websites and pages they promote.
Private Blog Networks
Blog Networks have been around for a while within the Online Marketing industry, however most of the options were low quality and always had a risk of future penalties. With the introduction of Penguin some of the most well known Blog Networks were completely shut down. Online marketers searching for a quality and scalable link building option decided to try creating a Private Blog Network. The result has been a new push for niche blog networks where the owner can control all aspects of the network including: quality of the back-links, content quality, hosting, number of outbound links, look and feel of the website, etc. Because of the ability to control every aspect of the network many companies and individuals have seen tremendous success link building with these networks.
Media
Finally media has become a great option for marketers to build traffic and exposure, but also positively influence ranking factors. By creating infographics, videos, images, and even music marketers have been able to tap into the linking power of sharing websites and industry specific websites to build authority to the websites they are promoting. By building unique media and sharing it marketers are able to tap into websites that have high PageRank and increase their own website’s ranking on the major search engines.