See How Google has set the Content Bar Ever Higher

In Google’s quest to improve the overall quality of content on the Web, the company makes continuous updates to its algorithm. These updates may receive colorful names, but they are serious business. You should familiarize yourself with these changes so that you can remove or change content that Google no longer wants to rank.

Hummingbird Recap

Google released an overhaul to its engine on Sept 16, 2013. The update, dubbed “Hummingbird,” affected a startling 90% of searches. Hummingbird represents the most extensive overhaul to the search engine of all time.

Hummingbird shifts the focus away from individual keywords and places it on longtails. These search phrases are specific to a particular person, place, product or location.

For instance, if someone is looking for widgets in Houston, they might type into Google, “where can I find widgets in Houston?” Naturally sprinkling these longtail phrases into your content can help you outrank people who are cramming individual keywords into their pages.

Additionally, Google has now integrated its Knowledge Graph into search, meaning that Google will attempt to answer questions directly.

The search engine still links to the site that it is lifting the answer from; however, and this can drive a ton of traffic. More than ever, it pays to be an authority in your niche. Google’s overall goal is to make their search engine better understand a searcher’s intent.

Panda

The original Panda updates were designed to prevent sites with low-quality content from ranking higher. These sites typically use SEO tactics to rank, since their content is not very sharable. To combat this, Google programmed the Panda filter to identify poorly written content and penalize it. While the filter isn’t perfect yet, it is already highly effective.

Panda 4.0 is an update to this filter that gives more weight to social signals like +1s, likes, and retweets. It penalizes for duplicate content, as well. This was a major update that affected over 7% of English keywords.

Penguin

Penguin, released in 2012, was designed to penalize webmasters who were trying to game the system. Penguin analyzes the link profile of a site and makes an educated guess about whether the links were purchased.

Sometimes, this is quite easy for Penguin to detect. Sites with mostly do-follow links are prime suspects. Google has also taken steps to de-index networks that sell backlinks. You definitely don’t want your site associated with these services.

Tips

Always produce unique, high-quality content, and don’t scrape content off of other sites. Avoid thin content whenever possible, and aim for at least 250 words in each post.

When you write an article, have a purpose for doing so that goes beyond, “I want to rank for this keyword.” Encourage social shares by breaking your content down into small paragraphs and sections, and use lots of images.

Seek backlinks from authority sites in your niche, but never purchase them. The best way to do this is to forge relationships with the site owners and then point them to your high-quality content.

Ranking well in Google is a powerful means of generating high-quality traffic. If you found this article useful, and want to learn about even more powerful marketing methods, click the link below to find out about my done-for-you system.

Hank van den Berghe