After the Google Penguin update, I find many of my old tactics are void. For those who don't know, Google went on the attack April devaluing and  penalizing sites using spammy SEO tactics.

Many sites were hit and devalued on the search engine results pages. I watched sites go from 20,000 unique visitors a month, to 1000 overnight.

Some of the tactics Google has frowned upon are paid text links, comment spam, link schemes and exact match anchor text. Above all, they're looking for unnatural links. In the past, buying a bunch of directory links and sponsored reviews with the anchor text example - "Ohio Jeep dealer," killed it. This no longer applies.

Gaming Google just got a lot harder

So What's Next?

One of my biggest pet peeves at automotive conventions is the line "Content is King!" It seems that's the only advise any speaker has. All you have to do is write a few articles with content on a subject that fits within your topic of interest. Easy enough - right?

Content is great but there's a bit more to it than that, but that's for another article. So let's say you have some great articles full of great engaging content - know what?

Guest Posting

Guest posting is completely within Google's guidelines (for now at least), and is a best practice for many bloggers. First, you will need to find some relavant websites that are willing accept your guests posts.

You can grow your list of potential guest posting spots by doing a few Google searches. Combine one of your primary keywords (Jeep) with a few variations on the phrases “guest post” or “guest blogging” like examples below:

• Jeep "write for me"
  
• Jeep "guest post"
  
• Jeep "guest blogger"
  
• Jeep "guest blogging"

This can result in several possible results to get you started. Once you find a number of sites, you will then want to determine if the website are of good quality. Posting guest articles on just any website isn't going to do the trick. You need to find websites that have some great traction, traffic and a strong social driven community to receive the best from your work.

TIP: Search out the Blog Rolls typically found on leading blogs to potentially find additional websites / blogs you could guest post on..

Finding and evaluating the websites is easy. However, getting a response back from the webmaster can be a challenge. Here is an example of an outreach email I use:

-- Light example --

Hello,

My name it Blake Arbogast. I really enjoyed reading many of the articles on your ABCJeep website. I work and blog for HometownJeep.com. I was wondering if you were looking for new guest posts? Working at a dealership, I have access to great information and content. I would love to write a few posts highlighting:
-  4x4 Jeep Trails in Ohio
- How to Find a Jeep Club in your Area
- Top Ten Places to go in Your Jeep

Thanks for considering my offer. I look forward to hearing back from you.

Best,

Blake

--/ Light example --

I can tell from you experience, you'll need to be persistant and continue to follow up with the webmasters until they answer you! Be ready to send samples of your writing if necessary. Don't get discouraged if you send out 30 requests and only get 3 responses. This is hard work, but worth it. 

If a webmaster agrees to post your article, don't forget it's critical to get a link in your post or author bio linking back to a relavent page on your dealers website (or dealer blog).

Before Penguin, you wanted to be sure your anchor text was keyword relavent, but now not so much. Continue this process and your guaranteed to increase your rankings increase.

Guest posting is not only a great tool to obtain quality links back to your website, it can also provide targeted traffic while building a positive reputation and authority within you're online and even local community.

 

Questions:

Have you been successful with guest posting on relevant blogs and niche websites?

How bad were you effected by the Google Penguin Update?

What are you now doing to obtain valuable links back to your dealership website or blog?

What is your Klout score?

Are you obsessed with it?

Are you checking it each day, and when you find that is has dropped, are you devastated? Before I go further, let me share –

I feel like I bear some responsibility for this.
It was just last year that I spoke about Klout in my Digital Dealer 11 review. I even went so far as to share the current Klout scores of several folks in the automotive industry. As I look back today, it seems that Klout has developed a whole new group of automotive folks that are the “most influential” according to the Klout scoring system – but something seems wrong with this.

Great influencers? Or great gamers?
If I log into Klout and look at the list of the “top influencers” in my screen, I have to ask myself – “Are these folks really influencers to me?” – and the answer is that many of them are not. The brutal truth is I consider many of the folks on the list to be great “gamers” with the Klout scoring system, but not necessarily real influencers in the industry.

While they do a great job placing lots of posts, tweets, pics, check-ins, and more, they aren’t necessarily the experts that Klout might portray them to be.

Am I saying that you can “game” your Klout score?
Yes! I find that figuring out how Klout calculates your score is in many ways similar to what I do with my SEO efforts each day - and just like I utilize keywords, back-linking, and more in search engine optimization, one can create multiple tweets, Facebook posts, four square check-ins, and Google+ posts to run up their Klout score.

Don’t believe me? Learn how to hack your Klout score here.

Guilty Guilty Guilty!
I am guilty of looking at my Klout score as well. As I work to promote my upcoming session at Digital Dealer, I can see my score has improved as a result of the posts and tweets that I have put out (HootSuite is a useful tool to do this!). However, as a working eCommerce Director of a very large group, I have a lot of work to complete each day, and if I was really worried about having a high Klout score, I could spend the better part of every day working the system to keep my Klout score (and “influence”) as high as possible.

On the other hand, how much of an expert would I really be as I neglect the more important work of running a cutting edge eCommerce operation?

Fake Reviews, Fake Likes, Fake Klout?
I have seen several folks post recently that their Klout score has dropped significantly in the last week, and I wonder if Klout has put in a new process to try and identify folks that are gaming their score, similar to what Google did recently to remove all of the bogus reviews that many dealerships were buying, and also similar to Facebook removing Facebook Likes that dealerships were buying. If this is indeed the case, then perhaps Klout is working hard to make their tool more effective and less susceptible to being manipulated.

Somebody get a rope!
Most of you know me for being outspoken, and I am sure that some feathers will be ruffled by this as well. I do write in good concern that most of us could better spend our time focusing on the actual work in front of us rather than inflating an online score to show up on a top performing list in the industry.

I would also hope that folks don’t measure their own self-worth based on an online score…

Undecided voters – who ARE these people?
If I haven’t aggravated enough people already, perhaps I could discuss the political posts and tweets of many of us in the industry.

Should one consider their political posts if they are trying to sell products and services to other folks in the industry that might have a differing opinion? Oh boy – now folks are really getting stirred up, another article for another day…

Narcissist Narcissist Narcissist!
On a closing note, if you like this article, please Google+1, tweet, re-tweet, like on Facebook, comment on Linked in, and give me lots of “Klout” on my account. Just sayin…