Did you know that Google can make upwards of 500 algorithm changes per/year? Yes that is correct. If you are still following your SEO map from 2001 you are most likely crashing and burning. With that said there are small elements to older SEO tactics that will always stand tall and proud but the reality is that search engine optimization changes every month if not every week. Google only changes their algorithm in order to increase user experience and resource so you can’t knock them for trying to improve. You have to be willing to roll with the punches if you are a true web marketer. Of course if you are a true web marketer you will understand that rankings are not the only game on the playground.
Recently Google started letting the search community know what changes they have been making to their algorithm so we can better understand why the changes occur. Their recent post regarding the 50 search changes they made in March is a pretty interesting read to say the least and might give some insight to where things are heading.
Here are some of the more important ones to remember:
- Better indexing of symbols (“%”, “$”, “”, “.”, “@”, “#”, and “+”)
- Better indexing and scoring for news items
- Better site links
- Better indexing of profile pages
- Anchor text usage
- High quality site update
For those of you who have been marketing websites in the pages of search for some time these changes should make you either smile or frown. Personally I see these changes as a shift to better brand your website rather than trying to manipulate the algorithm. If you don’t see the positive in that you are not rolling with the punches because if you haven’t noticed Google is shifting gears to make marketers actually market the highlights of a business online rather than looking for loopholes. Loopholes do not create online success, a digital voice does.
