Google has pushed out a major update to its search engine algorithm today. According to Matt Cutts (head of Google webspam aka Mr. Google Search to me), this is the largest update to Google’s algorithm ever.
In a nutshell, this update is a major step in their continued work to improve search engine results for the end users. This means that the update will reward great content, and naturally built websites. If you’ve been using some black-hat tactics and shifty link building practices, chances are you’re going to be very disappointed.
Another thing they are going after are websites who are linking to other sites to help their Page Rank. So that dress store that pays you $20 for a link? Ya that could be very harmful to your SEO if you are not using the no-follow property when putting paid links on your site. So those of us who have been doing this the right way all along have nothing to worry about. I cannot stress enough that if you were compensated for putting a link on your site or blog, it has to be a no-follow link. Matt discussed this topic for quite a while in a recent video, which leads me to believe it is one of Google’s main focuses. Am I getting through here? 🙂
Matt also said that the update would look at links more closely. For a while, SEO “gurus” were all about anchor text. Anchor text is the actual text used to create the link. So in this sentence, the work search engine is the anchor text. For years, people said that anchor text was one of the most important factors in helping your SEO. It makes sense. I mean, if your site about dresses is getting a link with the anchor text of “dresses” then your site must be about dresses. Well, that made sense for a while. Then people started manipulating the system and buying links with strong anchor text on any site under the sun. Google has realized that that is actually quite unnatural. If your site truly has great, beneficial content, people would be linking to it in more natural ways. For example, you’re get some links with the anchor text “here” or “click here”. Anchor text like that has always been regarded as very weak and almost meaningless. Until now. With the new update, Google is happy when 15% or less of your links are using your main keyword as the anchor text. That is where I believe that many sites will get hit with this update. There have been link-building tactics revolving around anchor text going on for years that are finally going to face the music.
Additionally, Matt said that a future update will focus on link analysis. So that will re-iterate the importance of natural-looking links and a natural number of links.
You’ll be able to tell if you’ve been hit by the update pretty quickly here. Take a look at your search engine traffic and if you see it dropping like an avalanche, you’ve been hit. If you were hit, I recommend cleaning up your link structure, building more natural links and focusing on quality content.
Personally, I am happy about this update. People who are building natural, good content will be rewarded. As Matt says, “as long as you’re working hard for users, we’re working hard to get your content shown as well”. That is how it should be. As a Google searcher, I don’t want my own results cluttered up with some garbage sites created by people who know how to game the system.
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