In part one with Michael Lewittes we learned more about the man and in this video he gives us advice on dealing with Google algorithm update is to read the Google guidelines, watch the hangout, reach white papers and follow the best practices as best as you can. Do not try to take shortcuts and do it the right way. He said it is not just important to satisfy Google for the traffic and business you’ll get from there but the guidelines Google gives you is all to help you make your audience happier. But the truth is, he knew noting of SEO, but it took him getting hit by Google to really understand how to think more about users - yes, through the Google guidelines, but still that advice was solid and helped him both in SEO and user happiness.
This experience adapted Michael not into someone who had to learn and become an expert in SEO but also as an advocate of SEO. He said “SEO is everything” because even if you have the best product in the world, it is meaningless if no one knows about it.
Now he is doing venture capital plays and he helps the companies he invests in with SEO. Buying ads is easy and he said you can buy ads for products or services that are not the best in class. But he believes when it comes to SEO, that organic search, you cannot fool it and it will separate the best products and content from the rest.
We then moved on to talking about E-A-T and how he was a bit ahead of the curve on E-A-T. He gleaned all this information from a hangout with John Mueller of Google, he said you need to prove it to Google that you are trustworthy and had the most expertise. For E, expertise, he added all the credentials of the sites and the author in detail. For A, authoritativeness, he said that came from sites like the New York Times linking, mentions and citing his site. The trust part was the hardest part he said, and he said that was around transparency and adding all that transparency to the site. Transparency was not just about your funding and backing but also do you list anonymous sources or not, or can you verify information through third-party sources and he explained how this all works. First was no longer important, it was about separating fact from fiction.
We then spoke a bit about Google core updates, which was a tangent but a fun and useful conversation. We discussed how some folks are on this line, on a bubble, where we are on the edge of either doing well or not well with Google core updates.
You can follow Michael Lewittes on Twitter at @michaellewittes.
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Forum discussion at YouTube.
