‘Oops! …I Did it Again’…Google that is
And again and again! In our first post we’re talking about Google and the updates they roll out every so often that change the rankings of websites in search engines.
For businesses, these changes can seriously impact how many people visit their websites and, ultimately, the bottom line. It’s safe to say that marketing experts have a love-hate relationship with Google for this very reason!
This post gives a brief overview of the updates we have seen so far from Google in 2015. If you’re interested in the performance of your website, staying on top of these changes is essential
Content is Quality
The latest apparent change to the Google algorithm* came at the end of April and has been named the Quality Update or ‘Phantom II’. It wasn’t confirmed at the time by Google, but search engine geeks* started seeing changes to search engine positions with the update seemingly focusing on improving the ranking of sites with quality content and decreasing those they deemed as poor quality.
Since then, Gary Illyes of Google has confirmed there has been a change to the core ranking algorithm and how it assesses “quality signals”.
These are some of the ‘quality signals’ you should be thinking of when looking at your own site:
- Pages with a small amount of content
- Poor user experience
- Excessive amount of advertising disrupting the user experience
- Pages featuring duplicate content which may be hosted on other sites
- Spelling and grammar.
In essence, ask yourself whether you would trust the content on the site. Would you part with your own credit card details to buy products from the site? If your answer is“erm…maybe” then you need to take action.
The Mobile Friendly update
Unlike ‘Phantom’ the mobile update has been formally recognised by Google, who confirmed that mobile rankings would differ for mobile-friendly sites starting on 21st April 2015.
Google states “As more people use mobile devices to access the internet, our algorithms have to adapt to these usage patterns….We’ve made it easier for users to find mobile-friendly web pages.”
This update affected all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact on search engine results. However, while the impact of this update seemed to be small in the short-term, it’s definitely a case of watch this space for further developments.
So, what does this mean for a business’s website? Ultimately you need to ensure that your site responds properly on mobile devices, and that the user experience isn’t left in tatters when a user views the site on a mobile. However, a fully optimised, responsive site may not be achievable for large sites without significant budget. Here are some things you can do to test how your site stacks up on mobile:
- Test a few key pages using the Mobile-Friendly Test.
- Use Webmaster Tools to get a full list of mobile usability issues across your site using the Mobile Usability Report.
Are we seeing things?
The first update of the year, which was again unconfirmed by Google, came in early February when webmasters reported major fluctuations in search engine positions. Speculation ranged in the SEO community about whether it was the result of an e-commerce focused update or a mobile usability update – to be honest, the jury’s still out on the causes!
*Algorithm defined: “For a typical query, there are thousands, if not millions, of webpages with helpful information. Algorithms are the computer processes and formulas that take your questions and turn them into answers. Today Google’s algorithms rely on more than 200 unique signals or “clues” that make it possible to guess what you might really be looking for.”
So, what are the lessons for businesses looking to maintain a strong presence on Google? One thing for sure is that online marketing does not stand still and Google’s commitment to providing consumers with the most relevant, quality-based search results means that they will forever tinker. Marketing experts need to stay abreast of the trends on the SEO community and work with developers and experts to ensure sites adhere to best practice. Quality is king, and those sites that have investment to ensure they are continuously improved will be rewarded in search.
* we love SEO experts and rely on them to help us navigate the ever-changing road of Google algorithm updates.