Search engine optimization is easy, but tedious. We've been saying that for a while now.
You are the best qualified person to manage the SEO process for your website, but let's face it; you're busy running your jewelry store and don't have the time to learn the ins and outs of the process.
Worse yet, the process changes often and learning the new techniques is also tedious.
It is our opinion that the Google Panda Update is really trying to snuff the SEO industry and give you the power to rank your website highly without really trying, and by just being yourself.
Any SEO company you hire should be able to write articles, blog entries, and tweak the copy on your website. However, many SEO companies outsource their copy writing to India, Philippines, and South America--all places where the American Dollar is worth a lot more money.
Somehow, this all relates to the reasoning behind Google's Panda Update, so stay with us...
100 US dollars is a month's salary for someone living in India. The same holds true for outsourcing to the Philippines. That's why American companies outsource there so frequently. You might hire an SEO company for $1000 per month, and many of them will take $200 and hire 2 people from overseas, meanwhile the SEO company keeps the rest.
Many web programming companies do the same type of outsourcing.
Outsourcing has become very popular for many American website companies, and it's pretty easy to identify websites written by non-native English speakers. Usually these are the websites with obvious grammatical errors, punctuation problems, and spelling mistakes.
So what does this have to do with Panda?
Let's look at these points from Google's blog ( http://bit.ly/lPUebd )
* Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?
* Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?
* How much quality control is done on content?
* Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
* Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?
To us, we see these 5 points as a clear attack against outsourcing your content writing to non-native speakers or those who haven't the foggiest clue what a "100 point RB SI1" is.
Is this Google's way of fighting large SEO firms? We think so. We know it takes a lot of personal education to truly understand the jewelry industry, and it takes even more to earn that certification or diploma you have hanging on your wall.
So when it comes time to write the product descriptions for your website, or the next blog post, or the next educational article, you need to either do it yourself or hire someone with knowledge of your jewelry.
To us, it seems like Panda was designed to thwart outsourced SEO efforts, and therefore force the internet to be more natural.
Sorry to say, but that it's going to cost a lot more money to pay an SEO firm to fight the Panda for you.
