8 Ways to Make Your SEO Strategies Survive from 2012 and Beyond

Getting tired of sudden search engine changes every now and then? Don't feel alone because we share the same fate. Afterall, it reflect the dynamic nature of search engine optimization (SEO).

But as you can observe, only a fraction of the overall search engine algorithms of major search engines like Google are being modified every now and then. And the usual job of SEO specialists is to respond to these imposed changes to minimize penalties and maximize search engine "friendliness". But the major components of the entire search engine algorithms are not yet entirely abandoned, for the moment at least.

The following list might just be sort of a reminder for SEO specialists following ethical SEO. The basics of Google algorithms are still to be satisfied before panicking to abrupt Google search setting changes.

1. Focus on Your Content

A good content is always relative to the target search terms. So to build this one is to make sure your content is actually what a particular user is looking for when going to search engine. You can then later on modify your content to make it search engine friendly. A popular SEO plugin, SEO Quake, can definitely do the job for you.

2. Descriptive Anchor Text

Most of us are always making sure that our backlinks should contain an exact anchor text to our target keyword. Definitely, if a machine would read your link from a very non-relevant content, chances are, it would evaluate your link as something spammy. Google previously emphasized the importance of good linking neighborhood. Google Keyword Suggestion Tool can definitely help you vary your anchor text according to relevance. You might add as well timely phrases like "target keyword of 2012" or locally like "target keyword of Madagascar . Be creative in making your anchor text reveal what is expected of the anchor text's landing page.

3. Meta Data

This one is for search engine spiders, but because of proximity and visibility, the Title tag is so important for both spiders and human readers. Gone are the days of abusing keyword stuffing in the Title tag. Make it descriptive as well. If your target keyword is "Hotels in Transylvania", you can make it as descriptive as "Book Affordable Hotel Rooms in Transylvania" and then you might add the target keyword as a category name like "Hotels in Transylvania" or "Transylvania Hotels". You can use any separator you think is appealing to the human eye.

4. Take Advantage of Webmaster Tools

You webmaster tools are your virtual assistants in determining how well your website respond to a particular keyword in search engines. The impression vs click ratio, for example, can help you gauge is your content is being found by your target audience. Webmaster tools often suggest what aspects should be improved in your website to make it more search engine-friendly.

5. Authorship

Google recently include linking your page to your Google+ profile. It makes your ranking pages more noticeable in search engine. So make sure your profile picture will not give your target audience an eyesore. Be transparent in proving yourself human in the cyberspace being flooded by automated content posting and spam stuffs.

6. Social Signals

This is something not new to us. Search engines monitor contents that are often mentioned in the social media communities. Like, tweets, followers, subscriptions  +1's, pins etc. Make sure your contents are getting found on the social media as something very relevant. BuzzFeed can suggest ways on how make your contents go viral.

7. Follow Webmaster Guidelines

For those who don't give up the fight yet against black hat techniques, webmaster guidelines are our allies. We share the same thoughts that search engine rankings should not be manipulated and populated by unscrupulous pieces of scrap and junk contents. Some recent suggestions on the on-page optimization include avoiding site-wide link lists on widgets  footers, etc. For off-page optimization, signatures on forums bearing target keywords are already being penalized. Rather relate your contents to the discussion of these forum threads. Also, low-quality directory links and bookmark links are more likely to give negative results.

8. Variety of Strategies

If Google is the major search engine today, you may end up frustrated if you find out your site is nowhere to be found on Google SERP's despite following all their guidelines. So don't rely so much on Google, but rather devise other strategies to maximize the reach of your content to your target audience. If you have heard of SEO 2.0, this might be something not new to you. But I cannot say that your should abandon adhering to any search engine. But rather makign your contents both search engine-friendly and user-friendly. Search engine rankings will just follow if your site does contain relevant information with a considerable number of visitors.


I'm sure it should not  just be 8 ways or something to make your SEO strategies survive after Panda and Penguin Back-to-Back wrath. Focus more on your objective and brainstorm effective ways to achieve them. Measure the result of your strategies now and then to improve those that are working and drop those that are not.