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Old January 20, 2014, 11:38 AM
Dien Rice Dien Rice is offline
Onwards and upwards!
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 3,358
Default A tale of caution...

Quote:
Originally Posted by bryanblake View Post
So here is where you guys come in. Have any of you ever used a company like this before? I believe that providing useful, valuable, and quality content is essential for my success. How much should I outsource for my content, and how much should I write myself? Are there things related to SEO that I should be doing myself and not outsourcing, as well?
Hi Bryan,

Sounds like you could have a good plan...

I just want to share a true story - as a warning!

A couple of friends of mine had a couple profitable websites. They created content for their websites, and on their websites, they had downloadable games via affiliate links. (That is, they didn't own the games - but these games were provided by another company, and my friends sold the games as affiliates.) If people went to their website and bought the games, they made a profit.

They drove virtually all the traffic to their website via search engine optimization (SEO). In fact, one of them (the wife) became an expert in SEO - she also wrote the written content, while the husband did the graphics.

They made enough money from these websites to make a decent living - not extravagant, but comfortable.

Then... some time in 2012... everything collapsed!

The "traffic" to their websites virtually disappeared!

No traffic meant... no sales.

No sales meant... no income.

No income meant... they had to find jobs!

What happened?

It was called "Google Panda." (Or more specifically, one of the Google Panda updates...)

Whenever Google changes its search algorithm, people give it a name (the same way they name hurricanes). The change in the Google algorithm which occurred on Feb 2011 was called "Google Panda," and there were further updates after that in 2012...

(I suspect my friends were probably affected by Google Panda's "over-optimization penalty" update in 2012...)

Because of the change in Google's algorithm, all the SEO they had done, suddenly was no longer effective! They still haven't been able to get it back to the "heights" they had reached earlier...

The lesson here is not that I'm saying don't use SEO... However, the lesson, I believe, here is not to make your whole business dependent ONLY on SEO!

It's okay to have SEO as one component of your marketing of your websites. However, I think using SEO as the ONLY form of marketing you do is tempting potential disaster... Because, if you rely ONLY on SEO, then the next Google algorithm change could potentially wipe you out!

So... Use SEO (it can be a good source of free potential customers)... But I would recommend not to rely exclusively on it, alone...

Best wishes!

Dien
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