Blog

Any SEO provider who's trying to do the right thing will tell you that SEO is so much harder than it used to be. Content marketing takes far more time and effort than the link building tactics that worked years ago. Some try to cut corners by writing one article and posting that one article on multiple websites. That's duplicate content. It's certainly efficient for the SEO provider, but not effective for search results. Let's say Google gives you points for content marketing:

• One unique article posted on one site - 1 point.
• One unique article posted on two, three, four or more sites - may look impressive,
  but still - 1 point.
• Four unique articles posted on four sites - 4 points.

You get no credit for duplicate content. Duplicate content does nothing for search rankings but seeing their articles duplicated on numerous websites might impress those who don’t know better. You know better! 

The best way forward is to focus on the future and diversify your online marketing.
Build your online brand with social media, press releases, guest blogs, infographics, videos and all forms of content marketing.
Look into pay-per-click advertising. It may be more affordable than you think. A small business can run a very tight PPC campaign targeted to very specific locations and generate leads for less than the cost of other types of advertising. Set up a lead capture form on your website and track phone calls to get a true measure of your cost per lead. 

Though just about everyone in the online marketing business has something to say about the latest Google Penguin Update, conflicting information and mass confusion abound. Even the so-called experts are struggling to understand and articulate the effect that Penguin has had across the web. Google's system of numbering the Penguin updates hasn't helped.