EEK! It's Another Google Update!
The self-proclaimed "SEO Experts" are all bouncing off the walls and screeching because we're in the middle of another Google Core Algorithm Update.
According to them, everything is changing (yet again!) The earth's magnetic poles are reversing, cats and dogs are going out for drinks together, and the very foundations of the universe itself are shaking. So, they say, you'd better hurry up and buy more of their most expensive software and their most expensive services or your website is going to be cast into SEO purgatory and never be found by anybody ever, ever again!
Ummm...no.
Google Core Updates occur about once every 2 or 3 months since Google introduced Deep Learning Artificial Intelligence into it's search engine in 2011. That would add up to about 60 Core Updates to the current algorithm so far. Google is nearly always in the middle of a Core Algorithm Update.
Seen any cats and dogs kicking back over a beer lately? Of course not. Dogs and cats don't drink! What are you thinking??
Seriously, though, it's important to understand something about these "SEO Experts". They're like drug dealers. They need to make you utterly dependant on their 'tools and services' so that you have to buy MORE of their tools and services when you freak out about Google every other day.
But THEY'RE the ones who are MAKING you freak out about Google every other day! Ironic? Not so much. Intentional? Absolutely.
There are easily a dozen paid "top SEO tools" that these so-called "experts" push all over the internet. The most popular one will cost you between $250 and $500 a MONTH (Holy keywords, Batman!)
Why is it the most popular? Because it pays the affiliate marketers who lie to you for money the highest commissions to lie to you for money, so that's the one they all tell you that you simply must have. This is how these people buy multi-million dollar houses on Zillow and curl up at night snuggling all the cash they stole from you all day.
These so-called "analytical tools" go to great lengths to seem like they're tuned in to the very brainwaves of the mighty Google itself. But when you take time time to actually read these "analyses", they are absolutely packed full of phrases like this:
"may lead to"
"it seems that"
"it’s possible that"
"there may be"
"which could be"
"it looks like"
"it appears that"
"is suggesting that"
"may not be"
And many, many more. Does this sound like actual scientific analysis to you? Of course not. Because they're GUESSING. And they're packaging those guesses as absolute fact and selling them to you for $250 to $500 a month.
Are you pissed off yet? If you're paying ANY of these SEO jokers, you should be.
But wait, there's more.
There IS a set of incredibly detailed, 100% accurate SEO tools out there that blows these fake SEO popcorn farts completely out of the water. Guess who provides that set of 100% accurate SEO tools?
GOOGLE does. And...it's FREE. AND...it has FREE VIDEO TRAINING to teach you how to use it!!
This is something the "SEO Experts" absolutely do not want you to know about. But it's been right out there in front of everybody's faces for nearly TWO DECADES.
It was launched by Google in June 2005 as Sitemaps. That same year in November, Google began adding non-sitemap features and metrics to Sitemaps, such as query stats, crawl stats and errors, and index stats. In August 2006, Sitemaps became Google Webmaster Tools. It continued to grow into the most comprehensive and detailed SEO and online ranking tool in the known universe.
It's now called Google Search Central, and it makes the "SEO Experts" look like babies trying to catch soap bubbles.
But wait...there's even MORE! (I LOVE it when there's even MORE, don't you?!)
Google also TELLS you exactly what to do (and what not to do) in order to get your website killer-ranked on Google. What most people don't understand is that Google is not their enemy, although it's been intentionally painted as a big evil website-crushing goblin by the "SEO Experts". (Now you know why).
Google is your friend. It WANTS you to create good website content. When websites have good content, the people that USE Google get good information. That means they keep USING Google, and Google remains the undisputed Mount Olympus of search engines with over 94% of the world's search activity. (Which also means that they can charge the most for advertising, but that's another story for another time; you shouldn't be paying for advertising anyway.)
So Google goes to far greater lengths than the "SEO Experts" to help YOU rank your website really well. For FREE. (Did I mention it's all free?)
To that end, below is a very small example of that help. It's a list of questions that GOOGLE has published to help you understand what you need to do with your website and its content to rank at the top of that search engine for your particular subject, product or expertise.
I've taken the liberty of adding both the wrong answers AND the right answers for you...hope you don't mind!
Here we go with Google's questions...
1. Do real people write your content for real people?
Wrong answer: No, I have a virtual assistant in another country use AI to write my content for me.
Right answer: Yes, being a serious business owner, I've taken the time to learn how to write content properly, and I write it based on detailed research into the actual people who read it.
2. Have you spent time and effort adding unique information to your content consistently?
Wrong answer: No, I have a virtual assistant in another country use AI to write my content for me.
Right answer: Yes, being a serious business owner, I've taken the time to study my subjects well and make sure that I add information that is unique to those particular subjects versus everyday commonplace information.
3. Are you just touching the surface level of the topic or going in-depth?
Wrong answer: Just touching the surface; I have a virtual assistant in another country use AI to write my content for me.
Right answer: Going in-depth; being a serious business owner, I've taken the time to research deeper details about my subjects that most people don't bother to provide.
4. What is it that you have in your content that makes it better when compared to the competitors?
Wrong answer: I have a virtual assistant in another country use AI to write my content for me.
Right answer: Being a serious business owner, I've taken the time to learn my demographic; the tightly focused group of people who depend on the accuracy of the content I provide. Most people do not do that.
5. Have you over-optimized the title, description and content to attract bots and not real users?
Wrong answer: Yes, I pay an overpriced SEO expert who claims to know what he's doing, but couldn't properly SEO himself out of a carboard box if the instructions were engraved on the inside of his glasses.
Right answer: No, being a serious business owner, I've taken the time to learn that on-page optimization is actually easy to do myself, and I optimize my site pages for actual users instead of crawlers and bots.
6. Are you using a clickbait strategy to get the attention of the users?
Wrong answer: Yes, I pay an overpriced SEO expert who claims to know what he's doing, but couldn't properly SEO himself out of a carboard box if the instructions were engraved on the inside of his glasses.
Right answer: No, being a serious business owner, I've taken the time to learn that clickbait strategies are considered spam by Google, so I never go near it.
7. Does your content have the potential to get natural references (backlinks)?
Wrong answer: No, I pay an overpriced SEO expert who claims to know what he's doing, but couldn't properly SEO himself out of a carboard box if the instructions were engraved on the inside of his glasses.
Right answer: Yes, being a serious business owner, I've taken the time to learn that content consumers naturally want to share content that they find interesting and useful with others that have the same interests, so they'll share my content when I write it properly, which creates natural backlinks.
8. Is the content written by someone who has extensive expertise in the field?
Wrong answer: No, I have a virtual assistant in another country use AI to write my content for me.
Right answer: Yes, being a serious business owner, I've taken the time to become more of an expert in my field as I create more content.
9. Do you focus on a niche or write about anything under the sun?
Wrong answer: Everything under the sun; I have a virtual assistant in another country use AI to write my content for me.
Right answer: I focus on a niche and write my own content, because being a serious business owner, I've taken the time to learn that Google focuses on websites that are organic sources of well-written content on a single niche subject.
10. Is your content going against the generally scientifically proven facts?
Wrong answer: Yes, I have a virtual assistant in another country use AI to write my content for me.
Right answer: No, being a serious business owner, I take the time to research and separate fact from fiction any time I present information that could be construed as scientifically controversial.
11. Will people lose money or life after trying the recommendations within your content?
Wrong answer: Yes, I have a virtual assistant in another country use AI to write my content for me.
Right answer: No, being a serious business owner, I take the time to be sure I never publish any content that could negatively affect the financial or physical health of my readers.
12. Does the content follow grammatical best practices?
Wrong answer: No, I have a virtual assistant in another country use AI to write my content for me.
Right answer: Yes, being a serious business owner, I have taken the time time to study basic grammatical rules and also use a grammer checker in my word processing software when I write content.
13. Is it syndicated content?
Wrong answer: Yes, I pay an overpriced SEO expert who claims that re-publishing sydicated content from other sources will help me rank in Google.
Right answer: No, being a serious business owner, I have taken the time time to learn that syndicated content is not original and can be seen as duplicate content, both of which Google consider to be spammy content.
14. Does the content accompany intrusive interstitial elements that cause hindrance to the user experience?
Wrong answer: What?
Right answer: No, being a serious business owner, I have taken the time time to learn that content that is interrupted by intrusive unwanted advertising and other interstitial elements interrupts the flow of the content itself, and greatly reduces it's inherent value to the reader.
15. How good is the mobile experience of your content?
Wrong answer: Very poor. I paid someone else to build my website for me, so the mobile experience of my website's content looks like a 1,000 peice jigsaw puzzle put together by a 2 year old child.
Right answer: Excellent. Being a serious business owner, I have taken the time to learn to build and manage my website myself, and carefully check the mobile version of everything I create.
Here's the important thing to understand. Google's Core Updates don't CHANGE the way the search engine works. They just make it better at what it already does. As long as you aren't paying an "SEO Expert" or using their "tools", and you ARE learning how to run your own business yourself, you don't have to worry about them and you'll save a ton of money.
OKAY THEN. Here are some action items for you.
1. Next time some "SEO Expert" tries to scare you into paying for all the overpriced and underpowered things that "SEO Experts" claim to do, tell them to go pound sand.
2. Look up Google Search Central. It's worth your time.
3. LEARN. I've been teaching the most comprehensive ECommerce Education and Mentoring Program on the planet for over a decade. I have more than 30 years of actual experience IN this business.
If you want to learn how to do this right, talk to me. I’ll teach you. It isn’t nearly as hard as you think it is.
You can call me at 888-824-7476; that’s my cell phone, really. Or you can join a Free Ecommerce Q & A Zoom Meeting with me here.
Ask anything you want; you’ll get the only honest answers you’ll find anywhere online.
And if you haven't done it yet...check out my FREE 11-Part EBiz Insider Video Series.
