SEO and Keeping Up with Google’s Algorithms

It is the goal of every company to have their website ranking high in the SERPS— the Search Engine Result pages. The reason is obvious enough, the higher the position the more publicity, more traffic, more leads and ultimately, more revenue for the business.

It is important to consider the direction of the search engines themselves when plotting a course to higher SERP placement. Google and the other search engines are trying to provide users with the most relevant results for the search queries they enter.

picture of SEO graph

If you are working with a site that is getting little results in the efforts to rise in the rankings, perhaps it is time to adjust the approach you are taking. You have to think about it from the angle of user-friendliness and how you can make your Users have a better experience on your website.

 

The Correct Approach

 

Google is constantly updating their methods of accomplishing their goals of improved service. The changes they make to their algorithms are constantly moving the goalposts that online marketers are aiming for and increasing the need to keep updating SEO campaigns.

Three of the most significant adjustments that have been made are called Penguin, Panda, and Hummingbird. Although many people have heard these names they are not sure exactly what these updates are for and how the can be factored into their SEO efforts.

In an industry that is as unregulated as Search Engine Optimization, it is hard to validate information and how true it is. Businesses are always looking to get more traffic and if they get the wrong information from questionable sources, then their website can get irreversibly damaged. In consultation with an SEO expert Melbourne, we have come up with these few points to help you remember some of the cautions you should take when implementing SEO on your website. Here’s one of their videos that briefly shows their approach at online marketing.

Following is a roundup of the three important changes that Google has made to its algorithms, which can help to illustrate the direction the search engines are moving so that savvy SEO professionals can adjust their techniques accordingly:

 

Panda

 

Launched back in 2011, the main purpose of the Panda update was to filter high-quality sites from low-quality platforms. Panda is designed to examine the content of a website and decide what quality category it will best fall under.

Sites that are deemed “low quality” are those that contain duplicate content or content that could be considered of little value to visitors. This includes text blocks too short to contain valuable material. The Panda update was the first major step in that Google set in place to provide their users with higher quality content. To learn more about gauging and assessing the quality of a website and the various characteristics that are seen as Value on the Internet, consider attending an internet marketing meetup near you. It will help you to meet professionals from the industry and perhaps even find some of the best local SEO consultants.

Penguin

The following year, 2012 saw the launch of the Penguin update, which was aimed at evaluating the links that a site provided. This was especially focused at weeding out the “unnatural”  links that led to a site, in other words, the links for links sake. At the time, many Agencies and their clients took a big hit and have regretted it since. So if you are thinking about looking for SEO or digital marketing professionals, make sure to do your research thoroughly! Here are 5 Tips to Finding The Right Internet Marketing Agency!

Having sites from authoritative third-party sites leading back to your business’s main page is a great way to increase relevance in the eyes of the search engines, but if not done properly, which is to say, organically, the search engines look disparagingly on this practice and do not reward them with increased relevance.

Hummingbird

Hummingbird was introduced in 2013, it was nothing like Panda or Penguin and yet utilized both indexing methods. The implementation of Hummingbird was to improve Google’s understanding of the user in an effort to improve service. The question it asked was “what could the user possibly mean when they use this query?”  and will respond with the results that Google considers most relevant.

In the end,  it is content that attempts to answer this question rather than a specific arrangement of keywords that receives higher preference from the search engines. This exemplifies the approach that best SEO practices should follow — aligning the site to the goals that Google is striving for as well, better user experience.

Written By Emily