Last year, was the year of quality. Google was cleaning house, and making search results better for it. Sure, a lot of affiliate marketers got hurt, a lot of SEO’s got caught taking short cuts, but these are the risks everyone takes when they try to manipulate search results. I don’t believe Search Engine Optimization, is optimizing anything, we are trying to manipulate the search results. Some do it with “White Hat’ methods, which means, quality back links that are not natural, but made, with quality relevant content, that is made. Google made their search algorithms link hungry, and the more the links, the better you are. We all know, not all businesses are going to get links “naturally”, like Google wants, so people have to either build their own links, or hire a professional and build links for them. Well, this year it looks like Google is not just cleaning house, they are actually dictating what they want to see in how you operate your business “above the fold algorithm” and late last years “freshness update”. Google is on a roll, and this year the Panda’s are going make site owners, and SEM (Search Engine Manipulation) sink or swim. I know I have changed some of the way I do things, just by February’s major update. Those who have never been affected, are the ones who have been doing it right from the start. They are the slow and steady link builders who diversify their links, diversify their anchor texts, and have always had a quality website. These are the people gloating right now, and the people who found a faster way to the top, are having a different emotion. Last year, I remember one major SEO Firm publicly state “from now one, we are going to be White Hat Only” because they got hit with some link devaluation. Well, that didn’t last long, because they just recently stated, they had major hits to their clients websites, due to link renting websites.

2012 will be the storm, and if you had your SEM house demolished, will you rebuild and stay the course, or pack your things and move on? If you weathered the storm so far, you can pat yourself on the back, and continue to keep on doing what your doing, and see these changes as a road map to long term success. For myself, I’ve had some SEM properties hit, but I will rebuild, and learn my lesson. This is Google’s country we are building on, and we are just renting, if we are good renters, they renew the lease, if we are bad renters, they kick us out.

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