Learn from what Google told us over the past 18 months

In just 18 months, Google has made a significant changes to their search algorithms, lauched a social media network and banned some well kown brands. Find out what we can learn from what Google past activities.

Jun-2010 Google Announced ‘Caffeine’

New web indexing system for faster and more comprehensive indexing, enabling Google to index and access more pages faster. Google claims that Caffeine provides 50% fresher results for web searches and the largest collection of web content  offered. This does also effectively increase the pool of pages available for search results, hence increasing your seach competition.

Dec-2010    Google & Bing Admit to Using Social Signals

Search engines publicly confirm what many SEO experts suspected. Social Signals such as Tweets, Facebook likes, Facebook shares, reviews’ etc. have a direct effect on ranking algorithms. The effect might be very small at current, but over the next two years we expect these signals to grow in importance. Over time, Social Media will become a game changer for SEO.

Feb-2011    Google Panda Announced    

Google Panda is downgrading low quality sites . This Google algorithm change emphasises on quality and unique content. The Panda upgrade was to improve the quality of the search results so they better serve to provide accurate relevant information. Google’s algorithms will now take in to account signals such as bounce rate as an indication on how relevant your website is to search results.

Feb-2011    J.C. Penney, Forbes & Overstock.com get caught doing black hat SEO

You can run but you can’t hide. Google's shot across the barrel of J.C. Penney, Forbes & Overstock.com for effectively deploying black hat link building methods.

Mar-2011    Google +1 Launched    

Google wants to make its search more social. To do this, they need to know who you are so your followers can see what you are voting for. You need a Google account to do so. 'Like' or 'Tweet This' button have been hot implementation as social factors have been shown to impact search result rankings.  Google +1 will have direct impact on Google rankings.

Apr-2011    Subsequent Panda Updates 2 – 2.5.2    

Unlike most other search algorithm updates that target individual pages, Google Panda affects the organic traffic of your whole site. Webmasters report up to 80% of traffic loss as Google focuses on established, trusted sites, brands and authority.

May-2011    Google+ Social Media Platform Launches

Google has identified its social networking initiative as the company's central goal, directly challenging Facebook. Expect Google to build Google+ features into the majority of its products from search to mail to video to documents.

Jun-2011    Google Limits Keyword Search Query Info

You will no longer be able to identify which keywords a person logged into Google.com searched for before they arrived at your website.

Oct-2011    Google+ Pages Launched

Allowing businesses and brands to join Google’s social network.

Nov-2011    Google Caffeine Update “Freshness”

Getting the best, most up-to-date search results.
 

So what's it for your 2012 SEO Strategy?

Here are some of the lessons we think you should learn for you SEO and online marketing cativities in 2012.

Content is even more important

• Avoid duplicate or poorly written content
• Focus on: Quality, Authority, Unique
• Consider rich media & apps: image, video, widget etc. to support link baiting

Work on Freshness

• Content lacking freshness is less likely to rank well
• Blog posts, User Generated Content, Status Updates & Tweets
• Regular updates to content

Integrated Social Media

• Content lacking social signals become less important
• Twitter, Facebook, Google +1, Reviews, Share
• Build foundation and platform to generate increasingly important Social Media signals

Creative Web PR

• Content lacking brand signals become less important
• Research and write viral stories which help spread the word about your brand
• Gain important brand links from authority news sites & blogs

Selective Quality Link Building

• Aggressive link building becomes much more risky.
• Emphasis on authority, relevancy, quality and mix of links not volume

Contact us to find out more about how we can help you with SEO, social media and online marketing in 2012.