What happened to our competitors? Penguin 2.0 – Wedding Videographer Melbourne

So I decided to write this post because this week a significant change occurred on google that affected our website in a positive way. So previously there was a post about our change in website, and not only that, we also migrated from Squarespace to WordPress. It took countless sleepless nights, to adjust and bring our website to a point where we were happy with the end product. Does it mean we are content? No, we still have a lot of work ahead of us, but its a great start, after a week in.

I decided to write this post, because I wanted to explain a little knowledge to my friends and colleagues, who asked me what it takes to rank with SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). Inherently I am no expert on this topic, and still learning every day. However, the hard work I have put in for the passed month, is seemingly paying off.

So essentially what is SEO?

Basically in layman’s terms, SEO is short for search engine optimization or search engine optimizer. The below description was defined by http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/SEO.html.

Search engine optimization is a methodology of strategies, techniques and tactics used to increase the amount of visitors to a website by obtaining a high-ranking placement in the search results page of a search engine (SERP) — including Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines.

SEO helps to ensure that a site is accessible to a search engine and improves the chances that the site will be found by the search engine.

It is common practice for Internet users to not click through pages and pages of search results, so where a site ranks in a search is essential for directing more traffic toward the site. The higher a website naturally ranks in organic results of a search, the greater the chance that that site will be visited by a user.

So how does that help you as a business or online presence? Because we are a newly formed brand, initially directing traffic to our website, can be quite difficult. Seo translates to us, a great alternative in garnering interest and although the benefits won’t always guarantee new business clientele, it is a great step towards the front door. So how does it work? Ultimately, you must first research the keywords users are typing in their search fields for your particular field. You can use http://ubersuggest.org/, to find combinations for your particular search or query.

An example for Grandeur Films could be Wedding Videographer, Same Day Edit, Wedding Video, and a whole number of different phrases. Now if I was to type that in google, then we would find a whole gamut of different Wedding Video studios, and most of the time you will see the same names popping up time after time. Now these terms are more general and much more difficult to rank for, however if you add your location to the keyword, such as Wedding Videographer Melbourne, you will have a greater chance at ranking within your local market. I won’t go into all the details of what takes place in obtaining this for your website, however I can show you what resources I used to get me to this point.

I would suggest visiting Lawrence Chan’s website http://www.tofurious.com/. He has a great resource that you can read, and although you have to pay for it, I believe it is money well spent. He also combines his pdf resource with a one on one consultation, if you would like more help. I however just purchased the PDF resource, as I have always found I learn a lot better if I try it myself first, and learn from the mistakes. There are many other resource tools, and if any of my friends would like to learn more, please feel free to personally contact me, and I will try to help in any way I can.

So essentially this week marked the launch of Penquin 2.0. You can read more about it here http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/another-step-to-reward-high-quality.html. It was an upgrade targeting what they call web spam. An excerpt from google explains:

“White hat” search engine optimizers often improve the usability of a site, help create great content, or make sites faster, which is good for both users and search engines. Good search engine optimization can also mean good marketing: thinking about creative ways to make a site more compelling, which can help with search engines as well as social media. The net result of making a great site is often greater awareness of that site on the web, which can translate into more people linking to or visiting a site.

The opposite of “white hat” SEO is something called “black hat webspam” (we say “webspam” to distinguish it from email spam). In the pursuit of higher rankings or traffic, a few sites use techniques that don’t benefit users, where the intent is to look for shortcuts or loopholes that would rank pages higher than they deserve to be ranked. We see all sorts of webspam techniques every day, from keyword stuffing to link schemes that attempt to propel sites higher in rankings.

In layman’s terms it was going to penalise websites that used black hat techniques to gain an advantage, and I wouldn’t accuse any of my competitors for this, however this weeks update did see a lot of these companies drop down in specific rankings. One of the beneficiaries of this, was Grandeur Films, as we went from page 2 or 3 in search results, to page 1 or near top 5. Honestly I didn’t even know about this update, until one morning where I woke up, decided to do my daily keyword search, and found to my delight, we had reached page 1 on several of our keyword targets. Honestly, this is a great achievement for us, as a newly built website, its very hard to get to this point, as you are competing with websites that have been running for years.

From this I have been trying to consult some of my friends into putting the work into a little SEO, as it is a great time to improve your website, while people are running around like headless chooks trying to find out how they need to get back atop. From what I have read, its all based on good content and practicing White Hat techniques, and just from my experience alone, it definitely works. Now I know this post was brief, and probably didn’t explain it all too well. However, the internet is a world full of knowledge, and from that alone you can learn many things. So please don’t hesitate.

I hope this helped, or at least motivated you to try it out.