Performancing Stream of Consciousness – Page Rank and File

If you own websites/ blogs and plan to maybe sell them someday, here’s something sobering. Google keeps flexing it’s muscle, and engineer Matt Cutts (the closest thing to a Google PR person and public “voice”) is saying that if you sell your site, there’s a consequence to the buyer: Google will cut the ranking down to zero.

Since Google has been registered as a domain registrar for a while now, they have access to your domain’s whois records. So they know when a domain changes hands. Even if you use “privacy” on whois records, they can track you through use of Google Adsense, (Google) Feedburner, Google Analytics, and who knows what else. Unless your sites are Google-free.

Is It a Big Deal?

Now keep in mind that this is apparently only being done if a domain changes hands AND changes topics. Whether they should be doing this or not is a moot question. They can and are. However, there are ways around this, something Gabriel Goldenberg at SEO ROI discusses.

However, as many top bloggers will tell you, good content is really what you want to focus on, not page rank. Even if you buy up a site, don’t worry about the Google’s declaration. Focus on the content. Supplement your text with images, diagrams, podcasts, video. Divide up your longer articles with h2, h3, h4 headings, and bold/strong your keywords. All of these help contribute to your content being deemed “of quality”. Your readers are ultimately going to decide whether or not that’s true. So the actual content has to be of value to someone, but not necessarily everyone. (Tangent: a bit of advice from Cynthia Morris at Copyblogger for finishing work.)

Building Your Site’s Profile

On the promoting side of things, check out the great audio interview that VKI Studios did with Todd Malicoat, aka Stuntdubl. It’s about 45 minutes but it’s worth listening to Todd’s expert linkbuilding and baiting advice.

Top blogger Guy Kawasaki briefly echoes the “good content” angle in a print interview at TopRank. (He also talks briefly, in response to a question, about he’d run Twitter if he owned it.)

Finally, if you’re using social media, take in Elizabeth Able’s guest advice at SEO Scoop, about building a social media profile. Her V.A.S.T. (Visible, Available, Social, Trustworthy) advice is aimed at Stumbleupon users, but is valid for other social sites. In fact, just the section headings alone lit a bulb over my head, making me realize how incorrectly I’ve been using social media. If the latter isn’t working for you, maybe the article will shed some light for you.