Modern Day SEO Warriors

I came across a very good survey on SERoundTable.com about penalties and SEOs. Those two words “Penalty” and “SEO” typically send shivers down every internet marketers’ spine – well most. If you work for a large corporation and do their SEO work or work with people from the Search department, try sending them an email with the tagline “I think Google has penalized us!” – and see what reaction you get. My guess is that you’ll get replies with “Was there an update?”, “Which datacenter!”, “It was those damn links we bought – I told you so!”, etc.

But the good news is that according to the survey post on SERoundTable.com more than 50% of SEOs are not really afraid of penalties and see it as a temporary setback. Of course, they also claim that their techniques are all white hat so there is nothing to fear. I’m glad to read that overall both sides are fairly balanced.

Now this is what I think…

Regardless of hat, Google’s algorithm can get funky, weird and flaky at times – and whatever hat you wear, a penalty in Google can hit your site and make you squirm. What really matters is consistency and relevance of your site. Now I’m not saying you should go out and build doorway pages, link farms and the usual suspects that Google has already warned against. But building and maintaining a quality and relevant site isn’t as easy as forums, 30 minute how-to DVDs, and conferences make it out to be.

So if getting penalized is out of one’s control, what can you do? Isn’t that the million-dollar question? Talk to any well-rounded and respected SEOs like Todd Malicoat, Rand Fishkin, Aaron Wall, Daron Babin, etc and you will realize that there is hardly an secret sauces and special ingredients that you hear rumors about. Of course there are techniques but like many other techniques, those can be taught, learned or bought.

You can read about the white, black, grey, purple, blue and pink hats on forums and other sites. They do a very good job in defining those standards and warnings. What I’d like to point out is some self-reflection of your site – the next time the word “Penalty” comes up. Ask yourself:

• Am I afraid of being penalized because I did something “shady” that might violate Google’s TOS?
• Am I afraid because I have no confidence in my SEO implementations?
• Are my balls sweating because I KNOW what I did was borderline black hat.
• Is all this penalty rumor…just rumors?
• Finally, examine the source of the penalty. Is it coming from a trusted SEO, some random SEO_001 member in forums, your friend who has a Geocities website (does that still exist!???), or an experienced search marketer?

If you can come out with your hands clean and not a drop of sweat – then I’d say your site, even penalized, will bounce back after some algorithm PMS is over.

Let me know if you have more ideas. I would like to hear them…