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You Do NOT Need SEO To Blog – Told you!

April 29, 2011 by 100 Comments
Ileane Smith

Ileane Smith

I am the official CommentLuv Ambassador. It's my job to find awesome CommentLuv blogs and feature them here as well as on the Facebook page, Google+ and Twitter! Do you have a great blog with CommentLuv? Let us know on our Facebook page I'll see any messages you post there. (only Premium Members with CommentLuv active on their main site can be featured bloggers)
Ileane Smith

@Ileane

WordPress blogging and tech! Discover tips for using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Podcasting, CommentLuv to your advantage! More info at http://bit.ly/ileane
RT @kikolani: The 2013 YouTube Marketing Guide http://t.co/kIpe8lCs76 via @KISSmetrics by @stevepyoung - 27 mins ago
Ileane Smith
You can get your own content published on this site as long as you have CommentLuv installed on your site.

Doing so means you get exposure to thousands and thousands of other CommentLuv users and your posts get sent out to the massive subscriber list.

Google loves this site and indexes it multiple times per day and posts always get lots of comments so you can be sure of some excellent exposure.

See the Write For Us page for more details

btw.. you can get this author box here

Many of you saw a post I wrote that talks about how bloggers don’t really need SEO, called Ever Consider Blogging Without SEO. That post came from the heart, and it was meant to encourage people not to give up if they’re having difficulty getting over the “SEO hump”. You see, when I first started blogging back in 2009, I had very little understanding of search engine optimization – but my blog managed to reach a page rank of 4 on Google’s scale. And I did it without using one bit of SEO – I didn’t even have my own domain or any keywords in my title. I submitted the post over on SERPd, and as you can guess, the post wasn’t actually “embraced” by the community. No hard feelings though. :) I got plenty of fantastic feedback in the comment section on my blog from people who knew exactly where I was coming from.
You Don't Need SEO

Who doesn’t need SEO

Ok, now hold on, I’m not trying to suggest that SEO is a bad thing or that it doesn’t work or anything like that. Quite frankly, I realize that it can be worth it’s weight in gold – if it’s done properly. I’m also not suggesting to anyone that they should abandon SEO methods that are already getting them good search engine placement.
My post was meant to speak to people that are blogging simply because they love it. It was not meant to be advice for people who want to make money online or create niche sites. I just wanted to clear the air and perhaps ease the frazzled mind of someone who was about to throw in the towel and call it quits with the blogosphere. After all, everyone knows that many bloggers get burned out and quit blogging after only a few months (or days even) and I don’t like to see people giving up just because they can’t afford the cost of hiring an “SEO guy”.

Even Matt Cutts says YOU don’t need SEO

Ok, so now what if I tell you that even Matt Cutts, head of the Google’s Web Spam team, says you don’t need SEO, now will you believe me? Here’s what I want you see (or hear actually, doesn’t really matter) in this video from the GoogleWebmasterHelp YouTube channel.

Matt says “we try not to put so much emphasis that you have to do SEO, because we want sites to be able to rank well on the basis of merit. If they’re good, they should show up in search results, that’s our basic philosophy.”

Matt makes a few more eye-opening statements in this video that might make some “SEO guys” cringe. For example he talks about how you can’t see all of your competitors backlinks.

Not seeing my competitors backlinks!!  Don’t I need SEO for that?

Yes, yes, yes – if your online to make money, you need to see your competitors’s backlinks in order to do an effective job with your SEO! But I didn’t say you can’t see all of your competitor’s backlinks, Matt Cutts said it. More specifically, he mentions that it’s a “tradition” that you can’t see ALL of them. Even if you use Market Samurai like I do, or some other powerful keyword research tool, you can’t see all of someone else’s inbound links. AND he seems to imply (now maybe this is just me who feels this way) that the links we don’t see are the ones coming from high page rank sites. Did you catch that?? Well I hope you did (so much for the idea of spying on your competitors and “stealing” all of their backlinks, I guess).

Most of the time I hate to say I told you so, but not this time (hence the title of this post). And for all of you naysayers and those of you who might be thinking that Matt’s not telling the whole story, or that he’s hiding something – consider this: the question at the start of the video came from an SEO guy (in this case “gal”) who is being outranked by other websites that don’t need SEO in order to do so.

Conclusion

Have you reached your own conclusions about the need for SEO on your blog? One thing that’s been made clear in this video is that if you develop enough good content – it’s possible that you’ll never need SEO :)  

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Filed Under: Blogging, Guest Bloggers, SEO Tagged With: , , , ,

Comments

  1. Dennis Edell says:
    April 29, 2011 at 7:33 pm

    I’ve never personally done it because I don’t understand it. I do outsource it now though…anything it gives me is gravy in my mind and i needn’t worry none. ;-)

    Reply
  2. James Pruitt says:
    April 29, 2011 at 7:36 pm


    Twitter:
    Great Post there Ilean. I agree. I ran my blog for over a year without doing any SEO. I got what I wanted out of it, and a biit more. Now that I am doing more SEO, I find that even those old posts that didnt use it are getting better results.
    James Pruitt recently posted..5 Worst Link Building TacticsMy Profile

    Reply
  3. Tia Peterson says:
    April 29, 2011 at 8:11 pm

    Hi Ileane!

    I love this. Most of the heavy lifting for SEO is already done for WordPress blogs. So, this post should come as a relief for many new bloggers. So long as the basics are in there, they should be fine.

    I wrote once on a blogger who broke all the “rules.” I love it! I feel that it’s better for people to not rely on following golden standards, and just write well. Let the rest work itself out.

    If there are glaring SEO mishaps, sure. But mostly, if people follow the basic SEO tips (titles, URLs, etc) they will be good to go.

    Cheers,
    Tia

    Reply
    • Ileane Smith says:
      April 29, 2011 at 11:18 pm


      Twitter:
      Hi Tia, I remember that post you mentioned. What I’d like to see is more people focusing on developing good content and spend less time “spying” on their competitors. Google has control over what see in the search results and as long as you stay on the “right side of the law”, you should be fine.
      Thanks for your comment Tia.
      Ileane Smith recently posted..April Announcements on Basic Blog TipsMy Profile

      Reply
  4. AIDY says:
    April 29, 2011 at 8:18 pm


    Twitter:
    Whew! A load off my mind! It is tough trying to keep up with all that goes on in the SEO world. I always thought SEO was some sort of niche-type blogging. It is good to know now, that I may not have missed out on much by not fully understanding SEO. Now, to keep doing what I been doing…blogging and loving it!

    Thanks again Ilene for the awesomeness :)
    AIDY recently posted..biggerMy Profile

    Reply
  5. Suresh Khanal says:
    April 30, 2011 at 5:02 am


    Twitter:
    The more mysterious I feel as more I digg and discover. I never believe people drive traffic so easily targeting a few keyword optimizing posts and hit it hard. You certainly need year long effort to achieve same number of traffic through social network or any other method.

    Recently watched a video from (I forgot the name) showing how people use the numbers in EzineArticles and do the keyword research. It hardly takes a couple of week to get considerable traffic if it hits where it matters.

    Mat Cut and Google certainly wish that the bloggers and webmasters could be free of this SEO sort of headache. If their algorithm is smart enough to analyze and rank independent of any of the factors, it would be great. But it is due to all those smart bloggers and webmasters, you must start learning SEO – though you’ll never master it. My friends are leaping and I can’t crawl for ever!
    Suresh Khanal recently posted..Enough is Enough Please No More Guest PostMy Profile

    Reply
  6. Allen says:
    April 30, 2011 at 6:01 am


    Twitter:
    I’ve been blogging for 2 years now and I can’t imagine my blog without SEO. Makes me wonder what does my blogs look like without SEO?
    Allen recently posted..Easter Pet- Itikura and RakuraMy Profile

    Reply
  7. Steve Goodwin says:
    April 30, 2011 at 6:28 am


    Twitter:
    I have been searching all night for the best ways to get backlinks to my blog. The main things I have found to be true is that you have to find dofollow blogs (such as these CommentLuv ones) and just spend some time reading other bloggers articles and commenting on them. As far as your article about not needing SEO goes, it was kind of inspiration. I am loving writing articles and publishing them on a normal basis. It is great to know that people can build their blogs by simply creating good content and then going out and building relationships with other bloggers in your niche. Who woulda thought people would get ranked higher to actually communicate :) . Anyways, thanks for the great post!

    Reply
  8. Dana says:
    April 30, 2011 at 9:23 am


    Twitter:
    If look into the latest Google Panda change, the SEO even become more not relevant. It is the interaction and the contents which can bring us to first page of Google Search.
    Dana recently posted..Apple iPad 2 is in Japan and Also PopularMy Profile

    Reply
    • Ileane Smith says:
      April 30, 2011 at 9:46 am


      Twitter:
      Dana, great point. The Panda update made a significant reduction in the relevance of many SEO tactics. Social engagement and interaction are becoming increasingly important and article spinning has been devalued. Good news for us Twitter addicts right? Thanks for the comment Dana.

      Reply
  9. Thomas says:
    April 30, 2011 at 9:56 am


    Twitter:
    Hi Ileane
    I do my SEO work myself, but of cause WordPress with a couple of plugins are doing most of the hard work for me I guess. Sometimes all that SEO talk is just getting too much I think. SEO is important, but there are a lot of other things that are important as well as a blogger. Sometimes I think SEO get to much attention. Without good content SEO is useless. Without SEO good content might not get the attention it deserves.
    Thomas recently posted..Twitter Guide For Dummies part1My Profile

    Reply
  10. Karen says:
    April 30, 2011 at 10:28 am


    Twitter:
    I have to admit that I don’t really rely that much on SEO, come to think of it, I usually just blog and if there are phrases or comments in there that would be considered as SEO, then, to be honest, they are purely coincidental.
    Karen recently posted..Mooma Herd Forming an Album To Chill Out ToMy Profile

    Reply
  11. DiTesco says:
    April 30, 2011 at 3:00 pm


    Twitter:
    I agree with you Ileane and that is also how I started, blogging without any idea of what SEO was. Despite that, I was able to manage to “attract” some readers and had accomplish that by being active at the “once” popular blogcatalog. Built a good community over there and things started to flow :) Down the line though and specially if you are in it for business, SEO will ultimately help even more, when applied properly. I tend to think that if “everybody” is providing good and quality content, something different has to be done to break the balance, lol. Good one… Speedlink bound :)
    DiTesco recently posted..Making Money Online With Your RSS Feeds and Twitter via BuySellAdsMy Profile

    Reply
  12. Kavita says:
    April 30, 2011 at 4:13 pm


    Twitter:
    Internet is full of seo services sites offering on page and off page optimization tips with different packages but I have always felt whether they are necessary to opt for. I have always felt that just writing quality and real content and sticking to basic seo is good enough to get ranked to search engines. Just use a good seo plugin and do blogging. Great Post, Ileane
    Kavita recently posted..Why every blogger should opt for Blogengage RSS Subscription ServiceMy Profile

    Reply
  13. Zarina Hussain says:
    May 1, 2011 at 3:06 am

    You’re right! The passion for shaing information and a CONSTANT communication of ideas, thoughts, and stories on your blog can do also do wonders. The secret is constant contribution to your blog and this can only happen if one steps out of the “rat race” mode to be on top and focuses on the purpose and content of the blog.

    Reply
  14. Nipon Bharali says:
    May 1, 2011 at 6:23 am


    Twitter:
    How can you u r not doing seo? I can see you are building backlinks everywhere :)
    Nipon Bharali recently posted..Jailbreak Verizon iPhone 4 On iOS 427 Untethered Using Sn0wbreeze 261My Profile

    Reply
  15. selfishyayun says:
    May 1, 2011 at 6:38 am


    Twitter:
    Looks like Google sedag make a lot of people get confused. Someone last month wrote that pagerank is not needed because of the emergence of new algorithms issued by Google and today I read here that we do not need SEO. For people just learning and want to increase blog rank on alexa and google I feel very disturbed and confused. I’m sure many think the same with me
    selfishyayun recently posted..Sebuah Artikel Mendapat 390 Trackback Dalam 4 HariMy Profile

    Reply
    • Ileane Smith says:
      May 1, 2011 at 4:21 pm


      Twitter:
      He selfishyayun, don’t get discouraged. Google makes changes all the time (not as many as Facebook though) and they do try to keep us updated with the best way to handle the changes. It gets confusing if you listen to a bunch of SEO “gurus” that will send you in circles trying to convince you that you need to pay someone to get you on the first page of Google.
      Let me clear some things up –
      Stick to the basics like writing good content and providing value to your readers
      Use social media – the right way (interact and engage – don’t automate everything)
      Comment and guest post on authority blogs in your niche
      And follow a few golden rules (like Tia mentioned earlier) such as good titles and url structure
      If you start with these things the traffic will come – just be patient :)
      Ileane Smith recently posted..Reach a Wider Audience With PodcastingMy Profile

      Reply
  16. Ayden says:
    May 1, 2011 at 6:45 am


    Twitter:
    Oh please stop. No more of this “No SEO stuff” You’ll send me broke, and I’ll have no customers to sell to ;) lol
    Ayden recently posted..BigCommerce ReviewMy Profile

    Reply
  17. Patricia says:
    May 1, 2011 at 2:03 pm

    Hi Ileane

    Enjoyed the read. I often wondered why people would spend so much time spying on others rather than just doing their own thing. As I am completely mystified by heaps of what the “experts” share, this post is like a breath of fresh air in a very crowded arena where everyone has their opinion. I’m sure Matt and the Google team either shake their head or just smile by much of what is written about this topic and many other topics too.

    I enjoy writing and as my readers keep coming back, figure they must either be learning something from my posts or at least enjoying being amongst the lovely lavenders with the rest of the community who interact on my small niche blog.

    Patricia Perth Australia

    Reply
    • Ileane says:
      May 2, 2011 at 9:50 am


      Twitter:
      Hey Patricia! I’m glad to see you agree with me :)
      I always thought the whole concept of “spying” on other people was a bad thing. Obviously Google agrees because in the video Matt talks about how they intentionally hide competitors backlinks from us and he even “suggests” that the high page rank backlinks are the links that are hidden. I guess that’s why Matt says they try NOT to put so much emphasis that you have to do SEO.
      To me that means – we don’t want you SPYING and “stealing” backlinks and the best way to stop you is by not showing you where those backlinks are coming from.

      Spying and Stealing are NOT good things – has anyone ever heard of Karma ;)

      Thanks Google :)
      Ileane recently posted..Basic Blog Tips Is Off to a Great Start for 2011My Profile

      Reply
  18. Devesh says:
    May 1, 2011 at 4:16 pm

    Hi Ileane,

    Interesting post about SEO. For first 3-4 months i ran my blog without seo! Though, if you’re using WordPress then there is no need to worry about it because wp comes with great seo features and plugins.

    Markut Samurai is great tool, i haven’t used it but i keep hearing good things about it.

    Thanks for sharing this great post, Ileane. Keep up the good work.

    Dev
    Devesh recently posted..5 Free Traffic Getting Methods Guaranteed To Rake In Loads Of Traffic- Without SEOMy Profile

    Reply
  19. Ileane says:
    May 2, 2011 at 9:59 am


    Twitter:
    Devesh, I do love all of the modules in Market Samurai. What I really like is how they give you so many video tutorials to go along with the training on how to use it. On the other hand, there is so much information that I need to watch the video each time I go to use it because they have so many steps I can’t remember them all. :)

    When I look for keywords to use in a post title – most of the time Market Samurai will tell me there is not enough people searching for that term.
    Most people will keep looking until they find a term with high search volume (especially if they have a niche website) – but I never do. I just blog about what I want to anyway – LOL! One day I’ll grow up and get a niche blog – maybe…..
    Ileane recently posted..Market Samurai – Great for Keyword Research and More!My Profile

    Reply
  20. Thomas 'Solar' Bywater says:
    May 2, 2011 at 1:59 pm

    Ileane, you sure are keeping on top of these comments! How do you find he time? Do you have comment management software?

    I’m doing SEO for my site http://www.greenforcesolar.com.au and whilst we have a bit of back linking outside and deep linking within the site, we already get hits based on our content. And we get some funny requests too, like helping kids with homework :)

    Reply
  21. Steve says:
    May 2, 2011 at 8:58 pm

    I like LinkDiagnosis to see competitor links that I can copy. Although, the really good sites get links that you cannot duplicate unless you are able to guest post on a site and have the page ranked well quickly.
    Steve recently posted..3 Ways in which you can accelerate debt reductionMy Profile

    Reply
  22. Mrs. White says:
    May 3, 2011 at 2:12 pm

    This is fascinating! I never really could understand SEO. I am really just focusing on content. I appreciate this post so much! I am relieved!
    Mrs. White recently posted..Financial Survival in Hard TimesMy Profile

    Reply
  23. jimmycook says:
    May 3, 2011 at 3:34 pm


    Twitter:
    Surely this is relative to the competition I have a blog that ranks 3rd for its chosen keyword that has no seo work done on it. But if the competition was more fierce I think some seo work would be necessary.

    Reply
  24. Ileane says:
    May 4, 2011 at 7:44 am


    Twitter:
    Jimmycook, everything in blogging is relative so I’m not surprised. Nice to see you getting high rank without really trying too hard though. :)
    Ileane recently posted..This Blog Runs On Thesis AwesomeMy Profile

    Reply
  25. labels says:
    May 4, 2011 at 4:45 pm


    Twitter:
    If you have a well set-up WordPress blog with some decent SEO friendly plugins and if your category titles include some good keywords (that you have researched as being moderate to low competition with a decent amount of daily searches), and your article titles also include the odd good keyword (be interesting, not spammy) – half of the on-page SEO battle is done. You will get way more bang for your buck by working on your backlinks. For bloggers that enjoy writing and commenting on other blogs, this should be simple. SEO is mostly just grunt work – there isn’t really anything all that sexy or mysterious about it.

    Reply
  26. franquicias rentables says:
    May 5, 2011 at 8:36 am

    I like to write without thinking how many keywords I have to repet or put in some sentences for SEO purposes. Link building is important and have to be natural for me. Sorry for my english level.
    franquicias rentables recently posted..Pasos previos para elegir franquicias rentablesMy Profile

    Reply
  27. Neal Morgan says:
    May 5, 2011 at 11:09 am

    I take great heed from the list line in the article. Create great content and you won’t need SEO. As i write more i realize that the better written my content is the less messing around i have to do to get it ranking well. I am at last getting somewhere in my over populated niche
    Neal Morgan recently posted..Wedding Flowers and how to choose themMy Profile

    Reply
  28. James says:
    May 7, 2011 at 6:56 am

    SEO, for blogging-it has indeed become a taboo subject with many articles going in favour of it and many going against it, so what is the whole point, I mean what can be done basically to have your blog give you just the amount of money that you want.
    James recently posted..Black &amp Decker LCS120 20-Volt Lithium-Ion Cordless Chain SawMy Profile

    Reply
  29. endlasuresh says:
    May 7, 2011 at 2:09 pm


    Twitter:
    I havent done anything seo tactics for my blog earlier but now has did even builded some backlinks and this didnot helping to gain more visitors.The other blog which is getting good results without seo method.I may think this depends upon competitors who run sites.
    endlasuresh recently posted..How to grow toor dalMy Profile

    Reply
  30. Jared Detroit says:
    May 8, 2011 at 2:42 am


    Twitter:
    The best way to get good traffic is to have great content or great functionality that people want. There are, however, some structural SEO issues that can really make it tough for you to rank or at the very least tough for you to rank well. There are main structural issues that should be in place but the biggest part is to just get out there and blog. You can always update and redirect (if you have URL issues) in the future.
    Jared Detroit recently posted..Custom Alerts With Google AnalyticsMy Profile

    Reply
  31. invictawatches says:
    May 8, 2011 at 9:19 pm

    I agree, with the popularity of social networking it is becoming less necessary to use any seo at all – if you are active in several social sites you will get all the traffic and interaction you’ll ever need from other supportive members. Ironically by just being active on other sites you are gaining backlinks which is the most important thing for seo anyway.

    If the main purpose of your blog or site is to sell products (and you aren’t into the social thing) then seo practices become more important, basically if you rely on search traffic for the success of your site you need to be doing at least some basic optimizing.

    Reply
  32. Mitz Pantic says:
    May 11, 2011 at 2:36 pm


    Twitter:
    You can go along for years thinking that you do not need SEO but you will soon realize that you do…

    I started out thinking I did not need it and built my first website on luck alone…It became popular because it had content that people wanted….I loved blogging and that’s it!

    So I had 600 original posts on this website…..And I will use one post as an example….3 years ago I wrote an article…It got about 5 hits a day for that one article. I thought that was great considering I had 600 posts….So I could get 600×5 visits a day…Yes it did happen like that on average…..

    Then I found out that SEO was important and went back and optimized that post for the right keyword along with related keywords….Then I did about 5 backlinks to that post…..

    The 5 visits turned into 200 a day for just that post…I could not believe it…If I had done the thing right in the first place I would have been having that free traffic much sooner….

    Anyway I continued to optimize this website. One post gets 1,500 visits a DAY…Others never succeed….If I did not do SEO I would be wasting my time….

    Now what do you think about having one post on your blog that could get 1000% more free traffic… Why not get what you deserve because you are doing the work anyway?

    You can still do all your guest blogging and social marketing but search traffic has long term effects that give your blog a solid foundation…
    Mitz Pantic recently posted..SEO Keyword Research Tips and TricksMy Profile

    Reply
    • Ileane Smith says:
      May 15, 2011 at 2:58 pm


      Twitter:
      Hey Mitz, those are some pretty impressive stats. I have a question to ask you too – Did you ever find any of your competitors that ranked higher for your keywords – without doing any SEO? Or they didn’t do as good a job at SEO as you but still got a higher rank?

      I like the method that you described for finding keywords – write a post and see what words are sending the post traffic. Then tweak your article to reinforce those keywords. Now that’s the kind of innovative stuff I like to hear more about. IMO, the hardest part of SEO is finding the good keywords that have high search volume, so anything that helps with that process is a life saver.

      Thanks Mitz!
      Ileane Smith recently posted..How To Ignore Google And Still Get Higher Search RankingsMy Profile

      Reply
      • Mitz Pantic says:
        May 16, 2011 at 8:46 am


        Twitter:
        This is so true!

        Everyday I do SEO for one post as that is all the time I have…About four days later I see the rise in traffic…

        I do see which ones are performing first because I do not want to waste my time… I do this in Google analytics by looking at the top content and then drilling down to see which keyword or keywords sent the traffic. Then I go and search for these keywords in Google search and see where I rank for it. Then I go to Google ad words keyword tool and see if it is worth improving on. For example if there are enough exact searches and sometimes if the estimated CPC is good.

        If it is good I do SEO…Then you know it is not a waste of time.

        When it comes to new blogs and writing new posts, you basically have to do all of that research before even writing a post. I know that it is easier to work on a post that already has stats and something to work with.

        This is a great method to use when you have guest bloggers posting on your website. Soon you will be able to see which posts are picking up organic traffic and work on them.
        Mitz Pantic recently posted..SEO Keyword Research Tips and TricksMy Profile

        Reply
  33. Mitchell Allen says:
    May 14, 2011 at 2:16 am

    Hey Ileane! Nice post. I like the premise as well as your qualifying statements about SEO actually working for you. As the proud owner of exactly one consciously created optimized blog post, I do agree that SEO is the bee’s knees (that post is continually in my top 5 – since it’s about a plugin, whenever the author updates his plugin I get a surge of people looking for my tutorial.)

    The flip side, the point you made so beautifully here, is that blogging for love (vs dollars) can be very rewarding when you get the feedback. Since, as Tia said, WordPress does the heavy lifting for your SEO, if you just concentrate on a relevant title and some basic outlines (H2 H3 Bold and UL / LI tags), then you can write that awesome blog post for your readers, not big G. Then the readers become your promoters, using social media. Whee!

    Cheers,

    Mitch
    Mitchell Allen recently posted..Lunch with Stephen KingMy Profile

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  34. Imran says:
    May 15, 2011 at 9:26 am

    Hi Ileane,

    I am still learning about SEO, and trying to understand what works best, still lots to be learned, and doing SEO to our blog articles will drive hugh traffic from search engines.

    Presently just doing still seo for on blog, but not much.

    Thanks for Sharing.
    Imran recently posted..Increasr An Excellent Tool To Build Your Social NetworkMy Profile

    Reply
  35. Michael Aulia says:
    May 16, 2011 at 8:11 am

    I honestly almost never optimized my posts or blog for any SEO… it’s too much work for me (and they are not the most pleasant things to do). Got good traffic (around 3,000-4,000 visitors a day after a couple of years). Got slapped by Google Panda to 2,000 a day..ouch :(

    Reply
    • Chris says:
      May 16, 2011 at 5:55 pm

      Maybe you got slapped by that pesky panda because you didn’t optimize for SEO. ;) Hope your traffic comes back that would be a shocker having traffic drop by half!
      Chris recently posted..Mens Rolex 2 Tone Daytona Mother of Pearl Watch for SaleMy Profile

      Reply
      • Mitz Pantic says:
        May 17, 2011 at 7:52 am


        Twitter:
        I got slapped on one of my websites…Always relied on luck to rank well….I went from 10,000 uniques a day to half that… I was devastated! Luckily I got over it and got to work!

        I panicked and was swearing at Google! I went onto Elance and Odesk to hire people to help me…OMG that was a mistake…Everyone came up with a different cause and had slow solutions which all turned out to be wrong… one guy went on about SEO and I thought that answer was too obvious.

        Then I looked deeper into it…All the posts that had taken a beating were not optimized and had no SEO for them. So I went to work and started doing SEO…

        That was April 11 and it is now 17th May and the website is back to around 7,500 to 8,000. It has taught me a valuable lesson…

        You cannot just rely on great content…which I thought would always win with in the end…

        Of course the rules to ranking and SEO will change again and we will all be lost once more.
        Mitz Pantic recently posted..How to Manage Social Media Profiles for Your Small BusinessMy Profile

        Reply
        • Ileane Smith says:
          May 17, 2011 at 8:25 am


          Twitter:
          Mitz, thanks for sharing your story. Can you share one or two of the most important ways you tweaked those sites that have come back after Panda? Did you add new content or rewrite existing content?
          Thanks for the heads up on Odesk and Elance too :)
          Ileane Smith recently posted..How-To Get StumbleUpon TrafficMy Profile

          Reply
          • Mitz Pantic says:
            May 17, 2011 at 8:37 am


            Twitter:
            I really didn’t know where to start but I did not create new content. I began rewriting and doing SEO on the content I had. Then I did the back linking, and optimized internal linking within the website. I made sure that I optimized to certain keywords, then made the anchor text to match on the back links and on the internal linking.

            By the way…I hate to say this but (when I was wondering what the hell was going on) I went to Google webmaster forums and got the worst advice of all from “top contributors”. I guess the top posters there just love to chat..
            Mitz Pantic recently posted..How to Manage Social Media Profiles for Your Small BusinessMy Profile

          • Chris says:
            May 17, 2011 at 5:41 pm

            I made the above comment a little tongue in cheek about being penalized by the big bad Panda from not optimizing but it seems there is some merit to that observation.

            It is sad that google is penalizing people who write unique content but aren’t technically savvy enough to know how to do SEO. It just rewards the big companies that can afford to hire out that work, and the very unscrupulous spammers who also know how to optimize their sites (ironically the very people google most want’s to get rid of)

            I’m glad to hear you are recovering Mitz, albeit slowly – it is a good wake up call to bloggers though that we need to give more thought to SEO.

  36. bingobabe says:
    May 20, 2011 at 5:47 pm

    Nice post, you make some good points. I think SEO is heading away from building links in mass to rank and getting back to more of, create awesome content and then you will rank. Hopefully :-)
    bingobabe recently posted..Bingo Entertainment Shows 48 Revenue Hike in UK MarketMy Profile

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  37. Debby says:
    May 21, 2011 at 10:44 pm

    I did absolutely nothing but built a website with no idea of SEO and got rankings, traffic, conversions and PR. When I started looking into SEO I got more of all the above but I am glad that Google looks at more than backlinks. Content is suppose to be King and I like it that way.

    Debs
    Debby recently posted..Orion Jupiter Water IonizerMy Profile

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  38. ringleader says:
    May 28, 2011 at 10:32 am


    Twitter:
    In your earlier blogs reaching a page rank of 4 was because first off it was natural content and not contrived to seem natural. Your content was organic, interesting, and keyword rich. These are the primary ingredients to a perfect blog. So yes you are exactly correct Seo is not necessary but the ever increasing content on the web and the constant search engine algorithmic changes. SEO is becoming more and more important to reaching your audience initially. – My thoughts
    ringleader recently posted..Johan Lorbeer German IllusionistMy Profile

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  39. cpasitesolutions says:
    June 1, 2011 at 8:54 pm

    You’ve clearly found a method that works for you. You’ve basically networked a PR 4 and that’s VERY impressive. I’m inclined to listen closely to what you have to say.

    Matt Cutts? Well… not so much. Look, he’s a smart guy and he’s in the know where Google is concerned, but he tends to gloss over the cracks and fissures in order to tow the Google party line. It’s important to keep an ear on what he says (and more important to listen for what hes NOT saying) but you need to take everything with a grain of salt. Google would prefer it if NONE of us did ANY SEO. It would certainly make their job easier, but it would also put a lot of online retailers and service providers out of business.

    Reply
    • Ileane says:
      July 18, 2011 at 7:25 pm


      Twitter:
      Hi cpasitesolutions, I’ve never had anyone listen to my opinion over Matt Cutts when it comes to SEO so I’ll take it.

      Thanks so much for your comment and I’m hoping that small business owners can find alternatives to getting site traffic outside of Google. They change up their algorithm so often that it would be a shame to see someone put out of business because of it.
      Ileane recently posted..CommentLuv for WordPressMy Profile

      Reply
  40. Betty says:
    June 7, 2011 at 9:25 am


    Twitter:
    I just believe that SEO and building the blog content go hand in hand.

    Reply
    • Ileane says:
      July 18, 2011 at 7:27 pm


      Twitter:
      Betty, are you saying that you can’t build content with SEO? If so, than I disagree, because I did it before. :)
      Thanks for your input though.
      Ileane recently posted..CommentLuv for WordPressMy Profile

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    • Tobi says:
      December 19, 2011 at 9:51 am


      Twitter:
      I agree with Betty. Of course not all you post would be fully optimized, but you should always strive to improve your onsite SEO. it really doesn’t take much, and there’s no need to over do it or complicate it. A good title, description, keywords in the first and last paragraph, related images and videos and a few other simple tricks will do it on any post.
      Tobi recently posted..The Traffic PlayerMy Profile

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      • Ileane says:
        December 19, 2011 at 11:59 am


        Twitter:
        Tobi, it really sounds easy the way you put it, and you’re right, that’s the easy part. I use SEOPressor to help remind me and my guest bloggers to do all of those things. But who is going to research those keywords in the first place to make sure they’re worthy? Not me :) And what happens if you spend hours researching keywords and someone who hasn’t done one drop of SEO ranks higher than you because their content is better? Or because their website has been around for ages. Not much you can do about that right?
        Don’t mind me, I just think keyword research is boring as dirt. I’d much rather write what I want and get on with my day.
        Thanks for your feedback Tobi!
        Ileane recently posted..3 Things You Should Do BEFORE and AFTER Writing to Improve Your ContentMy Profile

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        • Tobi says:
          December 19, 2011 at 3:43 pm


          Twitter:
          Thanks Ileane,
          SEO Pressor , or Yoast SEO Plugins are great tools to get your Onsite SEO, and with a bit of practice it does get much easier. You are right, the hard, boring part is infact keyword research, and of course there are many keyword research tools available to speed this process too, some of which I reviewd on my site.
          Of course writing whatever you like, however you like is prefered, but all I’m saying is, that for those who want to get higher search engines ranking on specific keywords, On site SEO sould not be ignored of feared from as it is a relatively easy task to perform.
          Thanks again for a great site.
          Tobi

          Reply
  41. Khabri Chacha says:
    June 29, 2011 at 7:53 pm

    hey lleane

    Your post always motivate me,,, thanks for the share.. :)

    Reply
  42. Cheolsu says:
    January 1, 2012 at 3:39 am

    Hi Ileane,

    The title of this blog caught my attention. You are correct about quality content. If a website had useful and quality content, there will always be visitors. Basic SEO can improve that existing traffic in the long run.
    Cheolsu recently posted..Gmail loginMy Profile

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  43. Ileane says:
    January 2, 2012 at 10:16 am


    Twitter:
    Hi Cheolsu, I’m glad the title grabbed your attention. I think some basic SEO is good and I just don’t like the keyword research part. Thanks.
    Ileane recently posted..Find Backlinks To Your Blog in the Dashboard, Technorati and Google Webmaster ToolsMy Profile

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  44. Tyler B says:
    April 4, 2012 at 4:06 pm

    Yeah I joined Black Hat World when I first started my blog and those guys were all super technical, a lot of link builders and PHP coders who had a download section with tons of nulled software you could get illegally. It rarely worked though – may as well pay. I was on there and I’m just a writer man, I like colloquialisms and some solid diction , but they were nice and everything. I don’t hate on them if they are doing mainly gray hat stuff, it’s part of the game to an extent – I wouldn’t call someone immoral for buying backlinks, ya know.

    But when it’s splogging and insane bulk spam commenting with backlinks to 40 different Web 2.0 sites and then draining all of those site’s link juice into a money site…come on. At that point you’re just ruining everything that the web stands for. That freaked me out when I first got into internet marketing but I just keep making my quality content and I’m not falling into the article spinning or spamming traps.

    If you build it (write it), they will come :D I want the future of the web to be words I want to read, not bot infested, spun shit content. Sorry for the profanity, nice post

    Reply
  45. Charles says:
    January 31, 2013 at 1:28 am

    This is my first time hearing about this. Since i have been doing SEO all my life, and it never fail me one. Knowing about this, it doesn’t make sense at all. Worth taking the risk though since the video was pretty convincing.

    Reply
  46. Ileane says:
    January 31, 2013 at 9:29 am


    Twitter:
    Charles, I don’t understand your comment. It’s funny that you say you have been doing SEO all your life because I’m wondering how old you are.

    Glad you watched the video though.
    Ileane recently posted..Are You Too Lazy To Be A Successful Blogger?My Profile

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