SEO - What's happening out there?

We've seen a big swing back from Social Media Advertising in recent times, and Google is once again the major player in online advertising.

With this in mind, the focus for businesses is to get their businesses profile up on the front page of Google through Search Engine Optimisation (or SEO), and so for many, the search begins to find out how to get there. There are thousands of books and articles available, each with the magic secrets of how to get top page ranking. The problem is most of what is published is already out of date, and following some hacks methodology can result in Google blacklisting the business owners website.

Google has for a long time stated that it wants the best websites on the front page as these provide a good user experience. The problem is there are many out there using techniques to convince the Google robots that their website is the one to be on the front page and so the battle rages. 

As people work out ways to trick the robots Google works out ways to undo them, hence Google's updates in the past couple of years have tended to be rather devastating for some. For those who ventured offshore for cheap SEO, the results have seen their websites and web addresses (DNS) banned from ever showing again. The most recent update from Google in Feb 2018 saw a core change to their algorithm and this one has the webmasters reeling as there is nothing they can do to fix the sites if they fall.

Google confirmed they ran a "broad core algorithm update" that impacted the appearance and rankings of some websites in the search results.

Google posted on Twitter that Google does these types of updates “several times per year” and there is nothing a site can do specifically to “fix” their ranking after the core update runs. “Some sites may note drops or gains,” Google explained that if a page drops, it doesn’t necessarily mean there is something wrong with that page, it is just how Google changed their ranking models that now benefits “pages that were previously under-rewarded.”

Here is Google’s statement on Twitter:

"Each day, Google usually releases one or more changes designed to improve our results. Some are focused on specific improvements. Some are broad changes. Last week, we released a broad core algorithm update. We do these routinely several times per year.

As with any update, some sites may note drops or gains. There’s nothing wrong with pages that may now perform less well. Instead, it’s that changes to our systems are benefiting pages that were previously under-rewarded.

There’s no “fix” for pages that may perform less well other than to remain focused on building great content. Over time, it may be that your content may rise relative to other pages."
 

So here we have Google confirming what was previously a speculation. 

Whilst businesses will continue to look to people and agencies for ways of getting their sites to the top of the search rankings here are some things that should be considered before embarking on a potentially disastrous journey. 

Content, content, content and more content. But make sure your website content is not plagiarised or copied from other sites. Original and fresh. It must be real and something the public will enjoy reading. 

A well-coded website that all linkst work and that titles of the content are relevant.

Images must be small in byte size but clear and sharp.

Your website MUST be phone friendly. (This is something Google is really looking at)

The list can go on and on but the most important thing is proper SEO is not cheap. The really successful SEO specialists aren't out there sending spammy emails to businesses telling them their website is poor ad they can put them on the front page. 

The real SEO specialist isn't giving away his methodologies either. It has been my experience that many of the reports I have seen provided to business owners are nothing more than deceptive jibberish.

There is an old saying. " The proof of the pudding is in the eating."  The relationship to the above. If they haven't got you to the front page for the key phrases in a reasonable space of time (depending, of course, on the industry competition)  then stop doing it. Avoid annual contracts, but don't expect to sign up today and be at the top of the search ranking tomorrow.

If you need some advice on SEO then feel free to contact us. Advice is free. Poor advice can be very costly.