Well, the dust seems to have settled after the Google Jagger update and enough experts are checking in with the same information that I feel comfortable writing about how to work with Google today.

First, let me complain a bit;

Google is working towards 'King-content' over anything else [of course], but the way they have gone about it has hurt many businesses this holiday season... just like last year. Their pre-holiday updates cause many sites to drop dramatically, if not disappear altogether from their search results pages. This drives those whose rankings have dropped to either bite the bullet and wait it out, or bite the harder bullet and buy into the Google AdWords program. Thus Google makes more money in big gulps during and after each update.

Don't get me wrong, making money is the whole point of being in business and Google is no different. It's just their timing that bugs me. How can they, in good concience, cause so much chaos and economic hardship during the holiday season? Do they have no heart at all?

OK - enough Google bashing - now for the meat of this article... how to get back into good position within Google's search results.

Inbound Links [IBLs] are still good, but where they come from and what the test of your link says has become more important than ever. Where your links come from is important now because Google's new algorithm seems to place more emphasis on 'authority' pages with links than just any page with links.

What is an authority page? Simple. A page that carries solid information about the focus of your website. In other words, any article that talks about your industry, offering good consumer information alongside a link back to your site is considered an authority page. The best place to have these authority pages is at a site with a Google page rank of 5 or higher.

How do you get these IBLs from authority pages? Again, the answer is simple... write articles. Write them about different aspects of your industry. Write articles with 400 - 500 words. Be sure to include your keywords embedded in the copy and don't forget that all-important link back to your site.

Once you have an article written there are many places you can place them online where they will be picked up by online content publishers, thus spreading your article around the net, along with that link back to your site. A well written article, properly placed online, can garner 200 - 300 links back to your site! Here is a list of good content hubs to place your articles;

http://www.GoArticles.com

http://www.ISnare.com

http://www.SubmitYourArticle.com

http://www.ArticleCity.com

http://www.ExchangeNet.com

http://www.Article-Directory.net

http://www.FreeZineSite.com

It also seems like reciprocal links are on the 'out' with Google. In fact, reciprocal links may be seen as a negative and hurt your rankings rather than help them. My recomendation is to forget about them for now and concentrate on writing good, keyword laden articles you can place at these content hubs, bringing IBLs without the requirement to link back.

Happy Holidays everyone... now get writing!

Gary K. Foote, Editor

The eMarketing Digest

http://www.theemarketin gdigest.com