Google Update Expected
Google is preparing to launch its latest and largest search algorith update in the next few days! And this could, and probably will, hurt many websites and businesses.
Earlier in August at the SES San Fransisco conference, Matt Cutts (Head of Google’s Webspam Team) announced that the Google’s “engineers having been working hard” on the next update.
Matt Cutts, in a response to to comments on an article about the next Penguin Update (see the full article here) is quoted as saying:
“Hey Barry, I wasn’t saying that people needed to overly stress out about the next Penguin update, but I’m happy to give more details. I was giving context on the fact that lots of people were asking me when the next Penguin update would happen, as if they expected Penguin updates to happen on a monthly basis and as if Penguin would only involve data refreshes.
If you remember, in the early days of Panda, it took several months for us to iterate on the algorithm, and the Panda impact tended to be somewhat larger (e.g. the April 2011 update incorporated new signals like sites that users block). Later on, the Panda updates had less impact over time as we stabilized the signals/algorithm and Panda moved closer to near-monthly updates. Likewise, we’re still in the early stages of Penguin where the engineers are incorporating new signals and iterating to improve the algorithm. Because of that, expect that the next few Penguin updates will take longer, incorporate additional signals, and as a result will have more noticeable impact. It’s not the case that people should just expect data refreshes for Penguin quite yet.”
More recently, on his Twitter feed, Matt tweeted:
“Watching another SEO snake oil video. “The only footprint these networks leave behind is WordPress.” Some people just don’t get it.”
Or Has The Google Update Already Started?
According to the Search Engine Roundtable website, the Google algorithm update has already started, with people seeing a change in their search rankings. Only time will tell if this update has started.
How To Keep Your Website Safe
Here are some ways of keeping protecting your website and its traffic:
- Add original content for your viewers (add a blog if your website has not already got one and update it frequently)
- Make your website social so users can share your content
- Use Social Media to interact with your users, customers and potential customers (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest etc)
- Use video. More and more people watch video online and YouTube is the second largest search to Google, so Google are adding more weight towards video in its search results.
- Avoid keyword stuffing
- Avoid Paid Links and Link farms
