Many of you have heard me mention a number of Google Algorithm updates that have occurred in February and March. Below is a quick summary of the nature of the Google updates and, based on what we know now, what they effect and how to comply with the new standards.
February 1st update
From a review of various online forums, it appears that this Google update targeted “spammy” links and content, including PBNs, or Private Blog Networks. PBNs use a system of purchasing expired domains and setting up a series of blogs that benefit a particular website.
The remedy for this is to continue to build link structure that a human being would use and produce high quality website content.
February 7th update
This update is focused on user experience, or UX. The best way to quantify UX from Google’s standpoint is to consult Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines (QRG). The QRG has great information on how human raters should test, and then rate, pages and sites from a quality standpoint.
To remedy elements that have been further addressed by this update, please review access to content, auto play video and audio, interstitials (pop ups), placement of ads or worse, pages that disguise ads as website content. Load times and relevant photos or diagrams are also factors in rankings. Mobile performance has been, and will continue to be, a prominent factor.
March 7th Update
Fred is here! According to a number of sources, Gary Illyes, an analyst at Google, said at the SMX West Conference that the Google search team has decided not to talk about the Fred update that touched down on March 7, 2017. Google would not confirm this last algorithm update, but this statement about Google not talking about it may be a confirmation by itself. Illyes went on to add that this update targets specific techniques that are contained in the Google webmaster guidelines. As usual, however, he declined to offer specifics.
Again, the most prominent piece of this update appears to be further evaluation of the quality of website content. The best remedy is to continue to provide unique and valuable content to your website users.
Conclusion
In many of the SEO forums that I frequent, I sense that SEO experts are angry with Google and their constant revision of the search algorithms. My point of view is that Google continues to find ways to combat spam and poor user experience in their search results. Update your website content, remove annoying ads and other money-making schemes and build links the right way. All of these practices involve hard work, but they will pay off in the long term.
Eric Van Cleave is CEO of Zenergy Works, A Santa Rosa California SEO and Web Development firm. Eric is also a partner in zentiv agency, a full 360 creative agency.