Post date: June 2, 2010 by braegheneffe
Each year Google perform a series of updates across the Internet, the main one that SEO companies watch out for is the PageRank update. There is also an update for the Google Algorithms, and although the two are essentially the same thing, Google do not always change the PageRank at the same time as processing an algorithm update.
The last Algorithm update has caused quite a stir in the Webmaster World. In fact the forum named WebmasterWorld has seen thread after thread about big changes to ‘long tail’ key phrase results in the SERP’s.
One major problem is that it seems website managers and SEO practitioners are getting used to being around the top, and almost expecting good results. They mention on-mass that they have lost search result positions to lesser websites. Unfortunately no one has a given right to stay in the top positions, and this is a quick reminder that we are all at Google’s mercy.
It would be easy to get turned off a search engine in this instance, but after Algorithm changes we usually see things calm down in the following months. Indeed 4 weeks after this last update, things seem to be settling back down [to normal].
Matt Cutts from Google Inc (he is head of the Webspam team), answers some questions raised on the topic of changing SERP’s on Youtube (below). It seems pretty clear to us that he is trying to focus on quality and depth of website content:
For many years there has been a number of websites which rely on the long tail search phrase results. To take advantage of this they put little, or duplicated text with inserted key phrases to their landing pages. This may have worked before but the Webspam team appear to be asking us to make sure no pages are created in bulk. Make sure they all have good unique content.
The other suggestion we think he is making, is that themed websites will now be weighted higher. In other words, if you have a generic website trying to cover all things known to man, it’s going to be a lot harder than you thought to get up the rankings for numerous different topics. Websites sticking to a certain theme, that includes expertise in the depth of content material, will have a higher chance of success in the SERP’s.
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Last modified: September 22, 2010
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