Google Algorithm Update – How it Affects Your Website Rankings

A rundown on Google’s latest algorithm changes

If you are in the digital marketing industry you may be familiar with search engine algorithm updates. For those not familiar, Google has the largest search engine market share and as such we will cover Google search engine algorithm updates in this post.

Google thrives to improve their search index by cleaning up spam and to show more relevant and credible search results to its users. They make it their mission to fight spam and control black hat SEO techniques (laymen’s terms: techniques that should not be used when completing SEO).

Thus, Google engineers make changes to algorithms and since the digital community loves quirky names, they are typically referred to with a moniker like Caffeine, Penguin and Panda updates. These updates normally cause an imbalance in search results and SEO marketers refer to them as a Google dance. For those interested, here’s a full list of Google updates search engine land.
When a major update occurs, here’s what usually occurs.

• A percentage of search results disappear from Google search or are penalized, meaning they won’t show or perform in Google search like they once did.
• Target specific industries like, retail, home & garden, specifically replica websites
• Websites with shady or spam-filled Back Links (SBLs) get penalized – these sites generally have paid back links, have participated in article spam, or have links from a link farm.
• Websites with pirated video and music content get pushed down in search results.

Within this transition time, search results change and a clear picture is not available until the update is complete. These updates are normally rolled out regularly and sometimes over 10 days a month. Google posts these updates through their official blogs, Matt Cutt’s blog or during SEO conferences.

With so many changes on a constant basis, it is important to keep websites up-to-date and follow Google algorithm changes to keep a website ranking high on page #1 of Google.

What can a SEO company do to help your business?
As SEO marketers, we pay close attention to SEO updates to make changes to our client’s websites. Additionally we are able to assess and implement these various SEO within a website’s development stage. After all what’s the point of having a website, if it does not get you noticed. This is where we SHINE. Not sure where to start? We can help!
#SEOtips: Your Google search results are personalized based on your web search history with Google. To see non personalized results or to see someone who never visited your website add &pws=0 at the end of the URL. Make sure you are logged out of your Google account.