If you’ve been active on LinkedIn or Reddit you know that SEO continues to keep digital marketers and content creators on the edge of their seats. A recent experiment we found involving parasite SEO on LinkedIn sheds some light on the potential shift Google will be making in terms of managing UCG sites like LinkedIn, Medium, Substack, and others. While we’ve hated the changes, it’s also important to consider and understand what the future holds for your entire SEO strategy.
What is Parasite SEO?
First, let’s talk about what Parasite SEO is. It’s an SEO strategy that involves leveraging high-authority domains to rank higher in SERPs by publishing pages with targeted money keywords. This technique can provide significant advantages due to the host site’s established trust and domain authority within the search engines.
Case Study Insights
The case study in question presented some interesting results through testing on posting from three different pages on LinkedIn:
- Volatile SERP Positions: The first page saw crazy ups and downs going from 3rd to the 45th position and then back again. This might suggest that Google’s algorithm could be testing different evaluation strategies for content relevance and overall quality. I.e., things written for people, by people. We’ve spoken on this previously.
- Indexing Inconsistencies: The second page saw indexing being snagged from them despite holding the 7th spot position. This could indicate an emerging scrutiny over the alignment of content with the site’s primary focus.
- Stable Rankings: The third page kept it’s rankings within the top 20-30 spot. The takeaway here is that Google could’ve been showing some alignment with what the search engines expectations are from content hosted on UCG platforms.
Google's Stance on UGC and Parasite SEO
The presenter of the case study claims that Google’s next update in May could be detrimental to UGC sites. Google has not penalized the publication of content directly on these UGC sites, but the focus has been shifting to more authentic and relevant content. Once again, content written by people, for people.
With the new update, or even before hand, Google plans to clamp down on what it views as any kind of “site reputation abuse,” and the “rent and ranking,” model, where sites will exploit their high domain authority rank with unrelated low-quality content. Here’s what to watch out for:
- Relevance: Google might start penalizing sites hosting content that strays too far from their core topics, which could be problematic for broad-topic media sites.
- Editorial Involvement: The level of editorial involvement might become a significant factor in determining whether content is deemed parasitic.
- Quality of UGC: While content on sites like LinkedIn and Medium is typically not directly punishable, the quality and relevance of these posts will likely come under greater scrutiny.
What to Expect
With the push to go against any of the misuse of site reputation for SEO gain, the upcoming Google update, and the rest of them, could see a more stringent evaluation of content quality and relevance, especially for high-authority domains. What’s this mean? Pretty much just a level playing field for SEO, prioritizing content that genuinely adds value, isn’t “look at me,” and closely aligns with the site’s primary focus…
Takeaways
Google has already p*ssed off so many users with their most recent update. Now, as we approach their next update, it’s important for anyone still focusing heavily on SEO to adapt their strategies to focus more on content quality and relevance. Parasite SEO has been shortcut to high SERP rankings, it’s long-term benefits and sustainability seems to be something that will fizzle out sooner than later, leading to more authentic and user-focused SEO pieces.
Staying ahead means moving forward with the changes brought to us. The insights from the case study discussed not only show current trends – even if they’re a little messed up – but it also hints at the need for a strategic change in SEO practices for startups and even larger companies.
