This is the end, hold your breath and count to ten….

Hang on though. The sky hasn’t fallen, the lights are still on, the world is still turning. Did googlemageddon really just happen? I assure you it did, although for me all Google algorithm changes are now reminiscent of the Y2K bug that was going to spark off WW3 and bring satellites out of orbit. So what exactly was it apart from a good excuse for the world’s press to sell us all another story of apocalyptic woe?

Well the heart of Google’s business is providing consumers with fantastic search results. Little surprise Google change their algorithm hundreds of times a year in a war against the nefarious spammers and online racketeers who are out there to game their way up the organic ranking charts.

In a year that’s seen half the internet searches globally conducted on a mobile devices, it’s no surprise at all that Google took the decision to reward mobile friendly sites with a higher ranking. That’s basically all googlemageddon amounts to. Industry analysts are also keen to point out that Android Apps on the Google Play store will rise dramatically in rankings compared to Apple App-store competitors in a week that’s seen the launch of Project Fi. I won’t comment, all I know is stranger and much worse things have happened at sea.

So where can I buy SEO?

A sincere question I was genuinely asked. Search Engine Optimization is not something that can be done by an agency or bought. It’s a long term strategic approach to digital marketing that any modern business will have close to its heart. The following formula helped me explain it recently at Oracle’s #MME15 Event in Las Vegas:

factual fresh content that aligns your products & services with your prospects’ pains
PLUS
technically -helping Search Engines to find that content
PLUS
Social Media

This is the ‘content-reach-influence’ holy trilogy of digital marketing. Get it correct and you’ll be zooming along the information superhighway in the fast-lane of success. Keeping your nose out in front involves keeping content fresh and building up an influential following on Social Media who will promote your stuff. Maintaining peak performance is far from easy, Metrics and KPIs become like a speedometer. Keeping one eye on the rear view mirror teaches us lessons about what works and what doesn’t. Fresh data will keep your revenue engine oiled, but let’s spare a few thoughts for the IT mechanics who maintain the digital revenue machine you’ve built.

How does you team work with your IT department to help your website perform?

Here are 6 areas you are probably going to need your IT department to help with on the technical side of your SEO equation:

1. A site that adapts to mobile ‘browsers’ – that’s what googlemageddon was all about. To see how your site behaves on the mainstream desktop and mobile browsers Silk Central is a fantastic tool. It checks cross browser compatibility and it’s yours for 15 days free – take a trial!
2. A site that’s up 24-7 with whizzy response times. Google loves a site that loads quickly and performs well. If the crawler drops in and your site is struggling under load you’ve messed up. Ensure you’re monitoring your sites with a great tool like Silk Web Meter. A free version is available so you can start monitoring today!
3. Load and performance test your site so you know it won’t fall over. A great cloud based like Silk Performer CloudBurst can simulate enormous loads from different geographies meaning you don’t even have to invest in the hardware and infrastructure to create a test environment yourselves.
4. Think like code. That’s all a Google crawler is and when it drops onto your site to check your content it’s not going to fill out a form to get to it. Build your site well to ensure the registration page contains enough content alongside the Gate/Form to help the rank increase. Crawlers stop at gates so getting your requirements right up front is critical.
5. Google crawlers can’t watch videos yet either – a transcript (also useful for people with hearing difficulties) helps SEO-wise.
6. Lastly ensure your site is easy to ‘share’ with Social Media widgets. When influential readers do land – it will be easy for them to share the content and those all-important-back-links to your content. Loads of free tools like Linktally exist that can help monitor the inbound links from major social media channels. Take a measurement and watch it grow with Social success!

I am sure I have missed a whole bunch of technical areas out and would love to hear what they are. Never forget that Content is king and everything else you’re doing is supporting it! Let me know what I’ve missed on Twitter and I’ll write the follow up soon.