Google has completely transformed the way search works again. Small business websites may need to evaluate their online content strategy with the new Google search update. An update of Google’s search algorithm termed “Penguin” was aimed at avoiding “over-optimized websites that were stuffed with keywords to improve their search rankings.
The engineer behind the google search algorithm engineer Matt Cutts penned a blog post explaining the latest update. Google has introduced another update to fight web spam and improve the online content strategy. It is intended to promote high quality content and reduce web spam. Search Engine Optimization(SEO) can be positive and constructive when implemented correctly.
Matt explained the changes as “trying to make the google search algorithm more adaptive,” or being more understanding of sites that have good content even if it isn’t search engine optimized like many marketers have learned to do. The sites that will be penalized are those that “throw too many keywords on the page, exchange too many links, and do whatever to go beyond what a normal person would expect”.
Good search engine optimization can also mean good marketing, thinking about creative ways to make a site more compelling, through search engines as well as social media. Some of the sites use techniques that don’t benefit users, where the intent is to look for short-cuts that would rank pages higher than they deserve to be ranked. Currently the online content strategy is to eliminate these type of short-cuts.
The update is designed so that:
- It removes your link value, if you were previously ranking high for certain keywords, and now your position has dropped
- Penguin does not improve search results but targets websites that Google deems as being “over-optimized”
- This update seems to focus on the most part on manipulative links
Many small businesses don’t pay as much attention to their internet marketing strategy or online content strategy. Having a successful internet marketing strategy takes time, dedication and research. Make a compelling site and make a site that’s useful and interesting. Another point that you should remember is to make a site that’s relevant to people’s interests. The goal of many of our rank changes is to help searchers find sites that provide a great user experience and fulfil their information needs.
Google, for many years, has just ignored links rather than actually hurting their rankings, but this seems to be changing with Google‘s Spam Report Tool. The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google‘s existing guidelines. To know if your website is hit by the Google search update, i.e. the Penguin update, the easiest way to determine it is within your Google Analytics account. If you see a dramatic drop off in traffic then tit is an indication that you have been hit by the Google search algorithm. Google claims it introduced its latest update in response to users who wanted a better overall search engine experience.
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