2012 saw some major changes in the Google search algorithm. This is all part of Google’s effort to ensure top quality websites rank high on the search. Chances are, your website too may have been affected, giving rise to the question:
What are the changes that affect your website’s performance on search engines?
Organic Traffic- coming from unpaid listing on search engines
Step one is to determine if your website has been affected by these changes. Check your Google analytics reports and compare them with previous reports to identify if there are any significant organic traffic changes. You need to pay attention to the organic traffic generated, as this is the stream that the Google update would have affected.
Link Building – getting quality web sites to link to your site
The Penguin update mainly targets website that have manually created links to spam search engines. It specifically looks into the anchor text (which appears highlighted in a hypertext link and that can be clicked) of the link and the link’s profile. If you have used identical anchor texts onall those links it is likely to get devalued. The update also looks for high competitive keywords to exact match anchor text ratio.
Page Layout
The change to the page layout algorithm penalises websites for having too many advertisements at the top of the page. This update was originated from the users themselves, who complained of too many advertisements that get in the way of finding the content.
Exact Match Domains
Websites that have domain names that exactly match the targeted keywords with poor quality content will be affected by this. For further information, have a look at our article here.
So how do you recover?
Once you have established you have been hit and/or if you have received notifications on your inbound links, you can use the disavow tool to inform Google not to take these links into consideration. This tool should be used only after you have contacted the webmaster and requested to remove the links and had no success; Google will treat those bad links as “nofollow” and thus, will not have an impact on your site’s rankings. However, it must be noted that Google may take weeks to process these requests.
Here are some other time-tested tips you need to consider:
Dos
- Use quality anchor text
- High quality contents that is keywords rich and relevant to your business products and/or services
- Offer a great user experience by getting feedback and comments linking back to your site
- Use key Social Media sites to drive traffic back to your website
- Ensure your content is written for users and search engines (not just either one)
Don’ts
- Excessive keyword Stuffing in the URL and contents
- Use Exact Match Domains – i.e. using keyword matching domain names
- Indulge in manual Link Building to irreverent websites
- Use low quality content that adds no value for users
Google will continuously learn, evolve and update its algorithm to weed out low quality websites. The best way to ensure consistent ranking regardless of algorithm changes, is to invest time and effort into building a quality website that adds value to users with great content and experience.
If you are still a loss about how you are affected by these updates, talk to us!
Social Media Business Consultant | Social.Local.Mobile Marketing-Strategist | Speaker | Trainer
Based in Sydney, Australia, Logan has been an avid & passionate social media user since the advent of Facebook. As the Social Media Business Consultant with over 30 years’ experience in corporate, SME business, together with running his own organisation for the past seven years. Logan is focused on guiding organisations through the four stages of social media for business – Education, Strategy, Implementation and On-going Management. If your business needs expert assistance on creating a custom Social Media and Search Engine Optimisation Strategy, contact us via logan@logannathan.com. Logan is also an expert on use of major Social Media sites for Business (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn). He is running a series of workshops. Contact Logan vialogan@logannathan.com for more information.
