As I write this article, it’s been exactly six months since Google launched its latest update. While there were several updates before this, none can match the panic reaction that this particular update evoked. Major sites like Ezine, Hubpages and Wisegeek faced the threat of being permanently lost in the SERP world. There were some who predicted the death of SEO. So is SEO dead Or is it a mere setback that can be managed with a little attention to quality.

Needless to say, conventional strategies like article marketing, link trading, blog commenting, directory submissions and other similar strategies that earlier fetched backlink juices are in for a doubtful future. Google’s update was aimed at content farms and sites that littered search engines with low quality content. It has also been advantageous for brand names and large corporations that can now redirect organic traffic to their sites.

Even in the wake of the panda effect, SEO does remain relevant, provided websites do it with care and consideration. Generating junk through content farms will no longer help. Google has more or less defined quality content- one’s that aren’t duplicated and one’s that aren’t driven from the SEO point of view; in short, informative. The focus would be on writing articles that captures the attention of the reader. He may not be someone from the field, but your content is presented so well, that he reads it, even if knows nothing about your field.

As earlier mentioned, link building has suffered as a result of the update. But it’s too early to write an obituary. Remember, Panda is only an update and not a total overhaul of Google’s algorithm. While future updates from Panda aren’t likely to deviate from the ‘user’s perspective’ approach, they are still refining the process. Link building may not become completely obsolete, but the focus shall now be on relevance. Which gets us to where we first began…content.

And finally, this is the right time to wake up and realize that it could be potentially dangerous to put all your eggs in the same basket. You need to diversify, because if a majority of your crowd comes directly from Google, it’ll be very difficult to survive in the wake of these updates. You can try by getting people to subscribe to your feeds, newsletters, social network etc.

Google now checks if searchers are spending time on site, liking it, following it … and if they are doing so, the website is sure to be ranked high. SEO companies that realize this have a future and those who continue with the old strategies are sure to perish.