Hi there hands up those of you who’ve been hit by the latest Google Update? Okay now be honest most of us have been in some shape or form if only for a small period of time.

Frustrating as it is there are Key Pointers that you really should be doing to reduce the impact of these updates so read on and discover what to do…

Google updates its algorithms about 500 times a year. Most of the time it’s just a little tweak here and it hardly causes so much as a ripple in the IM community.

But at least a few times a year, they unleash a really major one and it screws everybody up. Almost every Internet marketer flies into a panic and starts redesigning their sites. But a few cool webpreneurs don’t do anything at all. This is because they know how to benefit from the Google changes.

It’s about Content, Not Keywords

The latest one that was unleashed in April 2012 penalized sites that are over-optimized. Most IM courses and articles tell you all about optimizing. The whole point is to attract the search engines, so what gives?

Keyword optimization tactics will come and go. What’s hot today will be useless tomorrow. Just compare what people are doing today to what they were doing a couple of years ago.

The way to build sustainable sites that can weather any update is to focus on your content. Quit cutting corners on it and make it what it should be – the cornerstone of your online business.

Narrow Your Marketing to a Small, Hungry Crowd

Who gets hurt when there’s an update? Marketers who are all over the place trying to sell everything to everybody. The folks who focus on a specific, narrow niche are the ones that come out unscathed.

It’s time to start thinking small. There is no niche that’s too small or specific. If you lock into a small niche, you get people who are even more fanatical about what they love. They don’t hop from one trend to the next.

And they’re usually hungry for products nobody else is offering. When you focus on a small niche, you don’t just get traffic today; you get a rabid following that will stay with you.

Focus on Social Media

The truth is that it may be time to quit thinking SEO entirely. The future of marketing is in social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and your blog.

I’m not going to go into the stats that show how crazy popular these sites are. People are using them more and more to find the information they need. It’s possible that Google will update itself out of existence.

You should never put all of your eggs in one basket, and that’s often what we’re doing in SEO. We’re trying to seduce the King of All Search Engines, Google. When you diversify across platforms, this increases your visibility and security. One algorithm change can’t wipe you out.

When you’re diversified, targeted on a specific niche, and known for your stellar content, you’ll benefit from Google changes because your competition will sink. Google seems like it’ll be on top forever, but it’s a ‘now’ thing. What you should be doing instead of trying to win its favours is to build a long-term and sustainable marketing plan

Tony Phelps