Seven Deadly Sins of SEO Services – Sloth
April 22, 2013
Something I don’t think I have touched on nearly enough in this Sins of SEO Services series is the idea of relevancy. I have already touched on the idea that your site needs to deserve to be on page one, but I was stressing more on the quality of the content. Now I want to look at earning page one by showing Google that your site is pertinent to today’s search results.
How is this relevant to an SEO services sin? (You see what I did there?)
Sloth is the sin of inactivity; the reluctance to work, make an effort or change. The most common manifestation of this sin in SEO services is failure to keep up with the times. Google is constantly changing and being updated and if you as an individual, or you as a provider of SEO services, do not adjust your game plan accordingly then you could find your campaign slows to a sloth like crawl (yes, this blog post is going to be full of puns… come to peace with it).
Staying on top of Google’s expectations is not always as clear as it seems, especially now that Google has announced that it will no longer be publicizing their updates. This is one reason it’s so important to find an SEO services provider that you can trust with a history of success. They will know how to anticipate changes and react accordingly.
But keeping up with Google trends and tools is only a part of addressing this sin. Remember, it is just as much about a site being relevant today as it is about why a site should be validated on Google Webmasters Tools or getting set up with Google Authorship.
Imagine the following scenario:
There are two websites competing for the front page of Google for a keyword, conveniently named AwebsiteA.com and BwebsiteB.com. They were both established around the same time, let’s say two years ago, and have both begun SEO services around three months ago. AwebsiteA.com has a good, informative site with a relatively low bounce rate so has adopted a “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” motto. BwebsiteB.com updates their products or services frequently, alerting customers to sales and promotions while also contributing to a blog once or twice a week.
Which of these two website is more likely to see results quickly?
Although a low bounce rate is good for SEO services, the answer is BwebsiteB.com. The reason for this is because Google will be able to see that the website is active and updated frequently, and will therefore recognize that it is relevant. Although blogging (and social media) won’t guarantee good rankings, it is definitely something that can help reinforce SEO services and speed up the process (I admit it, I tried and failed to come up with another terrible sloth joke).
So let’s assume that you or your SEO services are diligently updating, blogging and posting on social media, as well as building a strong web presence and keeping updated with all Google changes… and as a result, you are proudly on page one! What happens then?
My final blog in this series is Pride, where we discuss what happens after page one.
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Christine Martindale is one of the Account Managers at SEOhaus. If you would like to stay up-to-date on all of the latest SEO industry news and tips, you can subscribe to our blog here. Thanks for reading the SEOhaus blog!