Anyone involved in SEO will appreciate the importance of the Google algorithm, how a change in the Google algorithm can have a dramatic effect on your Google ranking and where you appear on the results page for certain keyword searches. The Google algorithm can be viewed as an ever-changing law which digital marketing SEO professionals must adhere to daily if they want to remain successful.
The latest major update is nicknamed the “Google Fred update” and appears to target Ad heavy blog websites that do not add much value to the end user but generate a lot of revenue for the site owners. Of course, as an outsider, one will never know the intricacies of the full algorithm as it is as closely protected by Google as the Coca Cola secret formula is by Coca Cola. It is also rumoured that the algorithm is tweaked daily.
However, sites such as Search Engine RoundTable and Moz provide excellent insights as they monitor several sites who have experienced dramatic peaks or troughs in traffic due to an algorithmic change. They search for trends and commonalities between each of these sites to try and determine what occurred. The Fred update for example has yet to be confirmed by Google but those at the receiving end, who have experienced a huge fall or spike in traffic will attest to its existence.
It is also good practice to follow on Twitter SEO gurus who work for Google. For example, John Mueller(@JohnMu) is a great guy to follow as he is a website trends analyst at Google. For example, last year as major ranking boost was given to mobile friendly websites, which was mentioned by John Mueller on Twitter when he tweeted “the mobile changes mentioned here are fully rolled out”.
So, what can you do to keep aware of changes to the Google algorithm?
Firstly, monitor Google analytics and your website performance daily. If you notice a sudden peak or trough in traffic, try to pinpoint exactly where it occurred. Then check out the Twitter pages of SEO gurus and the most prominent SEO websites. If this amounts to nothing, simply type into Google “has there been a Google algorithm change today?” and devise a strategy to speedily capitalise on these changes. This a post event reactive approach. A better approach would be to adopt the proactive one, that is to monitor the Twitter accounts of Google SEO gurus daily and set up a Google alert for the Google algorithm for the most trusted SEO websites so you are one step ahead of an algorithmic change.
The Google algorithm is like a constantly changing set of rules for SEO professionals. However, you never get access to the rule book but it is still your duty to keep abreast of changes before and when they occur. Now, there is a challenge!
To view the Google Algorithm change history, please click here>>>
