Do you know… 
Why You Shouldn’t Worry about Google in Your SEO and Link Building?
- Every SEO, link builder, blogger or webmaster that worries about their traffic is obsessed with Google.
- Panda ate my website (and you want to fight back)!
- Penguin 2.0 is going to destroy link building!
- We have to implement Authorship immediately!
- Google is going to penalize guest posts!
And it keeps on coming – people just love to proclaim the end of the SEO world at the hands of Google but it’s all just a waste of breath.
What you MAY NOT KNOW is that the moment you forget about Google, you’ll start to drive organic traffic and get better results. Sounds weird, right?
Google is going to be around for the foreseeable future, and the landscape of SEO is constantly changing as Google gets better at penalizing spam and recognizing poor quality sites.
Having said that, stop getting worked up about the number of visitors, links, click-throughs, keyword density, and all of the other numbers that people stress about when thinking about optimizing for Google’s algorithm.
Focusing on the Numbers Gets You in Trouble
What did almost all of the webmasters and SEOs have in common? Most have been hit by the Panda, Penguin or a manual penalty or both?
It doesn’t matter what your website is about: marketing, entertainment, service-based, nono hair system or whatever, don’t focus on the number. Provide value. That’s all you need to get good results.
They’ve tried to game the system in some way because they abused the numbers.
They bought tens of thousands of spam back links, submitted spun articles with high keyword density to directories.
And abused exact match anchor text along with other so called “black hat” strategies that worked the algorithm into ranking the site highly. Stop obsessing over the numbers. In fact… stop focusing on Google altogether.
Quick – Act Natural
If it’s not obvious by now, Google is trying to promote a web experience that favors natural content that searchers interact with.
Search engine optimization has in turn had to change to fit with Google’s evolving view. One thing that the zoo animals have done is to put most SEOs focus on set farther in the horizon, rather than near sighted instant gratification.
Granted, some black hat SEO strategies have been proven to still work, and work well in some cases – and too often a website with good practices gets hit by a penalty for no good reason.
The kinks are still getting worked out but Google knows this and has gone as far as to ask for help spotting spam sites that are still ranking in the SERPs (search engine results pages).
Even so – the best long term strategy you have is to act natural, and the best way to do this is to in fact be natural.
This doesn’t mean that you should cast onsite SEO and link building aside, but just imagine that you live in a world without Google.
Focusing on User Experience
Google wants their users to have a good experience when they search for sites.
They want to showcase the best, most relevant sites for the query at the top of the SERP so searchers are happy and keep coming back to use Google as their main search engine.
While Google may be struggling to remove all of the spam sites that are ranking, it will only continue to keep refining and getting better at targeting and penalizing sites that do not deserve the page one rankings.
With that in mind, why would you want to go down a path that will inevitably lead to the sites downfall?
Sure, you might make a quick buck in ad revenue, but isn’t creating a lasting site that can bring in revenue for years to come better?
Now once again, imagine what your strategies would be like in a world without Google or other search engines that you try and manipulate. Where would you get links? How would you layout your site? What kind of content would you create?
Surprisingly, or not surprisingly, you may find that your strategies when you ignore Google and focus on people are the same strategies implemented by white hat SEOs.
Build Relevant Links
Link building is one thing that almost every SEO, from content marketer to blogger, is aware of in one sense or another and the abuse of link building has caused a lot of the spam on the web.
Without a search engine to trick, all of those thousands of back links you bought from a link network are worthless because they provide no direct traffic which translates to conversions.
With no search traffic, you’d need to build links on websites that have a strong standing within your industry, because they’ll drive quality traffic to you; meaning that the traffic consists of people that are already interested in what your site has to offer.
Make a Clean Site Layout
What’s the point of having hidden links and keywords if there are no web crawlers to trick?
By making your site easy to navigate for people you also make it easy for Google’s crawlers to index all of your pages.
Maintain a clean site layout with a good interlinking policy (don’t overdo it) to keep visitors digging deeper into your site and have obvious routes from your biggest landing pages to relevant content.
I discovered an Amazon review site where you can try no no laser device and I discovered that the site is clean and always retain her users.
Provide Your Best Content
You’ve heard it a thousand times, and you’re about to hear it again. Content is king! In a world without Google, content is the single most important aspect of your website.
Without a search engine to find your site you won’t have any other way for people to find you besides links, references, and email or social media and people will find no reason to share your site with others if they don’t find it useful somehow.
Your content needs to address a problem, and provide a solution whether that be selling a product or writing a blog post.
Worrying about what Google is going to do next only leads to you being at least a step behind and reacting rather than acting with confidence.
Take the reins and create a strategy that puts the visitor first rather than the algorithm.
Trying to game the system will only lead to penalties and extra work down the line which is a waste of resources that could have been put towards creating a website that actually provides value to your target audience rather than clutter?
About The Author: Thomas McMahon practices white hat link building for Page One Power by utilizing guest posts and ignoring the calling to the dark side. When he’s not writing at his desk you’ll find him chasing fish around the Boise River.