What Google Panda and Penguin Updates Mean for Your SEO Efforts

Google Panda and Penguin Updates are bringing some changes to the way that SEO works. In order to describe the ongoing challenges of managing search engine optimization efforts, today we’d like to call upon an old business school analogy: “building the ship while sailing.” The idea is that you don’t build a ship in harbor, and then set sail. That’d be too easy. Instead, leave the harbor with a serviceable ship, but continue to make modifications while you’re at sea. (Not unlike the similar analogy, “fixing the plane while flying.” That’s a bit scarier.)

Our point is that SEO changes so frequently, many small businesses find themselves – you guessed it – building the ship while sailing.

For example, a few years ago, link-building was all the rage in the SEO world. Then came along Google’s Panda and Penguin updates which punished sites that egregiously “over-linked” (in other words, trying to game the system.)

Now the SEO futurists tell us that while link building should still be an element in your SEO strategy, Google is more than ever keen on high-quality content and social media sharing.

Although high-quality content was always key to SEO, in a way, the pendulum has shifted back to where it’s an absolute necessity. Without compelling content, small businesses shouldn’t even bother.