Google Launches a New Algorithm

Google Launches a New Algorithm Change

On February 24th 2011, Google made an enormous change to the way that they rank and index websites and their associated pages dubbed either the "Panda" or "Farmer" update. Now, there are many new factors contributing to the ranking of websites all over the U.S. and soon the rest of the world. Google will no longer rely as heavily as it once did on keywords, but will now focus much of it's attention on the search behaviors of those doing the searching. If you are a usual Google user you may have noticed that the search page for Google has undergone some visual changes and functional changes.

What Has Changed

It is now possible that your website could rank higher or lower depending on many factors including:

1) Original Content: content not duplicated on your site and not obtained from another website.
2) Bounce Rate: instances where a visitor comes to your site and leaves immediately without making any selections
3) Relevance of the content on your page versus the page title and the search query that made your site show up.

It could even factor in if you have a low amount of return visitors. There are MANY more factors that go into this equation but, one things is clear; Google intends to let the way users behave when searching take a front seat to building their results.

What This Means For You

Again, your ranking may be positively or negatively affected by this change. It has been witnessed that some well established, number one ranking sites have dropped traffic by more than 50% since the Panda update, while others have started to see an increase in rankings. There are just so many factors to consider and very little hard evidence to go with. As you may or may not know, Google considers the exact factors and formulas for their algorithms to be a secret worth taking to the grave. This cuts down on people that would wish to unfairly climb the rankings.

Our Advice

So, what should you do? Our advice is to leave things in the hands of your marketing and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) specialist. Not only is it their job to figure these things out so you don't have to, I haven't found anyone yet that isn't trying to stay on top of all of the search engine updates and trends. If you don't have an SEO specialist and don't think you can keep your website coming up well, get one! Lastly, if you don't want one and want to brave the storm all yourself, just look online. There are plenty of blogs, vlogs and reports that are offering advice on this new issue. Keep in mind, no one knows everything about the specifics and what is to be widely accepted as fact will be only speculation with supportive instances. As always, try some things and see what works for you specifically.