SEO Changes over the Past Few Years - Essay Example

How SEO has changed with regards to the Changes Google has made over the past few years How SEO has changed with regards to the Changes Google has made over the past few years Introduction Search Engine Optimisation has been defined as the procedure of enhancing the traffic quality and capacity that a website gets from the various search engines that are there. Such search engines include Bing, Yahoo, and Google. The enhancement of the traffic is done through what is termed as natural search outcomes. The result is that the search engines find it simpler to index and crawl the contents of the websites that are placed higher in rank than others, or those that appear first among the search outcomes. It has been noted that websites that are ranked higher or that appear prior to others experience more client visits than those that are not. SEO does not only refer to certain words or terms; it also comprises searches of images and local searches. Nevertheless, it has to be noted that SEO is not the only fitting tactic for all the websites. When it comes to internet marketing, other tactics can be utilised. For example, the quality of a web page may determine the indexation and crawling of search engines along with the technical problems a site may have. Lately, there is a large number of personnel who examine the current trends taking place in SEO in various search engines (Beel, et al., 2010). Bearing this in mind, this paper will focus on Google, as a search engine in relation to the SEO changes it has made in the last few years. According to Forbes, Google is a technology company that aims at boosting how information is linked with people. It is noted that Google major focus is on search, platforms, advertisements, and operating systems. With the primary focus of the paper being on searches, it is asserted that the search part of Google includes numerous online content and a large array of web sites that is accessible to any person with internet connectivity and the Google search engine (Forbes, 2015). Good SEO When good SEO is talked about, the latest trends and strategies applied in its application are considered. Hence, it can be stated that good SEO is the utilisation of the strategies and techniques that ensure that a website ranks highest and appears most often in searches by the targeted client base. In the past, websites used to use a few appropriate explanations that were related to the content along with Meta tags. However, these traditional techniques cannot apply in the current setting due to changes that have occurred. The changes have been driven by Google, which provides the major search engine. Good SEO involves content that is of high quality. High-quality content ensures that the website has relevant subjects and terms that are normally used during searches. Moreover, the more the information, the more the search engine will show up the website in the search results. Further, regular updates ensure that the quality is enhanced (DeMers, 2014). Old and outdated SEO strategies do not value the essence of social media. Good SEO incorporates social media that makes sure that there is an extra stage that increases the number of people reached. It also leads more traffic to the website. Hence, social media adds to good SEO through its linkage with organic marketing strategy. Good SEO has a good build of linkages that form a network of outsourced traffic from other sites to a particular website. However, the old strategy of link building by purchasing links is highly prohibited. So is the purchase of social media followers. Another old strategy pertaining to the content involves the use of a lot of keywords that have no importance to the content (Rampton, 2015). Good SEO makes use of few but critical keywords that bear a huge significance in the content that is availed by a site. Changes made by Google over the Past Few Years Being a company that provides the major search engine. Google has been making changes over the years that are aimed at improving SEO. The changes Google has been making stretch back to the year 2000. These changes have been diverse and targeted varying aspects of SEO. At the start, the changes were tactical; however, recent changes have been strategic. For the purpose of this paper, the changes that shall be looked at are those associated with the search algorithms of Google. Some of the changes are minor; nevertheless, from time to time, Google has effected major search algorithm changes. The major changes have had a substantial impact on the search results. One major change made was known as Google Panda. On 23rd February 2011, Google made a key update that had a huge impact on websites. It is noted that the update impacted around 12 % of the search outcomes. The aim of the update was to crack down on links that were said to be manipulative. Hence, websites with poor content, big advertisement to content ratio, content farms, and quality problems were affected. It further updated the algorithm on 11th April. In this update, global questions in English linked to a site were identified and data concerning any website that had been blocked by users was collected. Since this period, the algorithm has been updated annually, several times each year with minimal impact to search results. The impact of each update has always been estimated to be at 1 %. The last update before Panda was completely integrated into the core search algorithm was effected on 18th July 2013 (DeMers, 2014). The impact on businesses was that if their sites had rich content, they appear more and higher in search results. Hence, the quality of the content determine the appearance of a business in a search result. Thus, businesses have to update their content regularly (DeMers, 2014). The other update was Penguin. It was first rolled out on 14th April 2012. Officially, it was known as the Webspam Update. The implication was that it fine-tuned several factors linked to the recognition of spam content. Spam content has always been an issue in search results. The estimated impact was around 3 % of all queries done in English. In addition, it affected what is commonly known as the stuffing of the keyword. Since its inception, Google has made regular updates to the penguin algorithm. On 13th October 2013, Google added a live feature to Penguin; hence, filtering spam content in real time. For online businesses, the implications are associated with the backlink profile. If the website of the business has a backlink that is bad, then the business will be affected by performing poorly in search results when the major keyword used by the business is affected. Further, the business stops appearing on page one of Google page search results (Gavril, 2014). Bad backlink profiles are related to purchasing of links for the website either knowingly or unknowingly (Gavril, 2014). Described as a major change, Hummingbird affected the core search algorithm by Google. It occurred on 20th August 2013. The alterations that were undertaken influenced the Knowledge Graph and semantic searches. Hence, the main impact was that rather than evaluating the terms, Google sought to establish the meaning and concept of the terms. Thus, when a question is used during a search, Google search engine tries to answer it back. To make sense, the Knowledge Graph was changed to allow the anticipation of the facts that are being sought during a search. The implications for businesses are that, rather than information on the online site of a business been shown in the search results, Google shows the most recent that is linked to the current customer demands. The result is that businesses that have tailored their content to match up current types of searches like the voice searches have their sites ranked higher and appear more often in search results (Gibbs, 2013). Drawbacks of non-compliance with changes by Google Failure to comply with the changes that Google has made over the years has several drawbacks. If a website associated with a business failed to comply, it might be identified as spam. Considering that the changes that came with Panda were geared towards fighting spam, some sites that failed to comply with the changes are wiped off from the search results because they are considered as spam. Further, non-compliance in regard to the quality and richness of content led to their poor performance in search results. Thus, few pages were crawled from the website. Non-compliance led to a decrease in the long tail positioning for sites that are of low quality. The major drawback is the complete scrapping off of a site from the search results (Joubert, 2014). Non-compliance with link changes meant that the ranking of a site in search results dropped significantly. Most notably was the failure to change any link scheme that a site had entered into, which was regarded as unnatural. Non-compliance has led to sites been penalised for not failure to follow the rules. Another drawback is the reduction in the number of visitors visiting the site, or rather put a reduction in traffic. For an online business, this negatively impacts the sales made (Rampton, 2015). Mobile-Geddon The change was rolled out on 22nd April 2015. The major impact was on the mobile friendliness of a site. When clients take searches, the sites that were more mobile friendly are given preference over those that are not. Businesses with low mobile friendly sites will see them rank lower. The change signified Google change of strategy that is inclined towards the mobile market as more and more people become connected to the internet through mobile phones. Previously, sites that were more mobile friendly just had a label to them. However, mobile friendly sites received higher rankings as it is used as a ranking pointer. The change affected all languages accessible through Google globally. The implication to businesses cannot be assumed. Bearing in mind that it was geared towards tailoring search results for the particular device that a client is using to search for certain things in the market. The change has an implication on traffic to sites owned by businesses. The other implication is on the income obtained by businesses that rely on these sites and the outcome of searches. Failure to make their sites mobile friendly will see their revenue dwindling (Gibbs, 2015). Examples of Companies that have not shown compliance and how As per a research conducted by Merkle, it is reported that out of the Fortune 500 companies, only 54 % of them have complied with the changes that Google has made. The compliance that has been attributed to this changes is that based on the mobile friendliness of their sites. Notably, it has been found that many sites of non-compliant companies have failed to make investments geared toward developing their sites to make them work appropriately on mobile phones. Examples of these companies are Valero Energy and Phillips66 (Lugmayr, 2015). They failed to comply with Google changes in regard to having versions of their sites that were compatible with mobile devices. On the one hand, taking the Phillips66 site, “http://www.phillips66.com/EN/Pages/index.aspx,” to test its compliance with Google changes. It is noted that the content it offers is larger than mobile device screens and that the links are too adjacent. On the other hand, the Valero Energy site, “http://www.valero.com/default.aspx,” test for compliance indicates that it is not compliant because the text is too minute to be read, it lacks a mobile viewport, the links are too adjacent, and the content is larger than mobile device screens. These tests were done on the site availed by Google to test for compliance (Google Developers, 2015). Business SEO Strategy Example Every change made by Google puts businesses that comply with them a step ahead of those that fail to conform. Most business SEO strategies fail because of poor strategizing. Through poor and incomprehensive business SEO strategies, the businesses fail to get the necessary results anticipated by the business team. Some of the failures stem from a lack of careful analysis of the clientele base, the deliberation of the best qualities that the product offered by the business has, and an evaluation of the other sites that are doing best in search outcomes. With this knowledge, for companies like Phillips66 and Valero Energy that are yet to comply, an example of a business SEO strategy to get them to comply with the changes is as suggested in the outline below. First, a clear description of the clientele base and their major needs. The importance of this step is to avail tools and contents that make sense to the clients. It also helps in developing the right keywords that bear the greatest weight of the requirements of the customers. It needs a thorough research of the clients through surveys, social media, and studies from researchers that have been done before. Once this has been done, the next thing is to do a research of the keyword. In this step, the business does a research that helps it to be articulate in terms of the content. The most vital aspect is the reputation of the keyword. The reputation can be assessed from an evaluation of what the competitors are aiming at or doing an extensive research of what the clients are searching for. The third step is the search for holes and prospects. After the keyword or words has or have been identified, the holes that may exist are looked for. Holes imply content that may yield minimal volume in terms of searches. Prospects refer to parts, which provide great volumes in terms of search results; however, content is yet to be included. The fourth step will involve describing the business opponents. So for companies like Phillips66, they will evaluate what Valero Energy is doing that leads to greater search results, if it relay does yield high search results. After describing the business opponents, the following step shall involve defining what makes the search results of the opponents do so well. One will be to evaluate their compliance with Google changes. How have they complied with the changes? What product features do their sites offer? Once these are determined, the business now needs to modify their SEO plan and make commendations as per the findings. It can be noted that the previous steps are mainly inclined towards researching. Finally, the business SEO strategy concludes by prioritising the primary aspects of the plan. A summary can be done or the products that are most essential to the clients can be established. Once this is done, the business SEO strategy is good to be implemented on the site. Conclusion Google offers the best options for a search engine because of the wide coverage it offers to businesses. Most people use Google to search; hence, it has a significant importance to all business that want to market themselves online and source for customers. Failure to comply with the changes Google has made means that the ranking of a company in search results fall. If a business fails to appear on the first page of Google search results, most of the times, no one will ever come across it as most people don’t search beyond the first page. The impact of this is a reduction in traffic to a site, leading to a decline in revenue due to poor marketing. The site may also be penalised by Google for non-compliance leading to losses. References Beel, J., Gipp, B. & Wilde, E., 2010. Academic Search Engine Optimization (ASEO): Optimizing Scholarly Literature for Google Scholar & Co.. Journal of Scholarly Publishing, 41(2), pp. 176-190. DeMers, J., 2014. The Three Pillars of SEO in 2014. [Online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/01/28/the-three-pillars-of-seo-in-2014/ [Accessed 12 May 2015]. DeMers, J., 2014. Your Guide to Googles Panda 4.1 Algorithm. [Online] Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jayson-demers/your-guide-to-googles-pan_b_5959634.html?ir=India&adsSiteOverride=in [Accessed 12 May 2015]. Forbes, 2015. Google. [Online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/companies/google/ [Accessed 12 May 2015]. Gavril, A., 2014. Google Penguin 3.0 is coming and here’s what to do to prepare. [Online] Available at: https://www.123-reg.co.uk/blog/search-engines/google-penguin-3-coming-how-to-prepare/ [Accessed 12 May 2015]. Gibbs, S., 2013. Google introduces the biggest algorithm change in three years. [Online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/27/google-biggest-algorithm-change-hummingbird [Accessed 12 May 2015]. Gibbs, S., 2015. Google’s mobilegeddon will shake up search results20. [Online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/apr/20/google-mobilegeddon-will-shake-up-mobile-search-results [Accessed 12 May 2015]. Google Developers, 2015. Mobile-Friendly Test. [Online] Available at: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/ [Accessed 12 May 2015]. Joubert, B., 2014. Have the Hummingbird, Panda & Penguin caused your website visitors to disappear? Quite possibly.. [Online] Available at: http://blog.realpoint.co.uk/1421/hummingbird-panda-penguin-eaten-your-site-visitors/ [Accessed 12 May 2015]. Lugmayr, L., 2015. GOOGLE MOBILEGEDDON HAS NOT HAPPENED YET AND 46% OF FORTUNE 500 COMPANIES DONT CARE. [Online] Available at: http://www.i4u.com/2015/04/90496/google-mobilegeddon-has-not-happened-yet-and-46-fortune-500-companies-dont-care [Accessed 12 May 2015]. Rampton, J., 2015. 5 Outdated SEO Strategies That Could Be Killing Your Rankings. [Online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnrampton/2015/03/11/5-outdated-seo-strategies-that-could-be-killing-your-rankings/ [Accessed 12 May 2015]. Read More