Google makes hundreds of changes to its natural search algorithm each year, which are designed to improve their search listings and help users find the best site for their query. When changes to this all-powerful and mysterious search algorithm happen, the world of SEO and inbound marketing has to react quickly.
Last year was arguably the most challenging years for SEOs, with Google making some major alterations to the algorithm, which caused a big shake up in the industry. It meant many inbound marketers had to completely change their search strategy in order to keep up. To help you keep up to date, MEC has listed the main algorithm changes of 2013 and how your SEO might have been affected:
February 2013 – Panda updates
In February Google continued to roll out new iterations of the Google Panda update, which was first introduced back in February 2011. The Panda update was originally developed to punish sites that had weak content (such as ‘scraper sites’) and articles created by online ‘article creation’ tools.
This update affected around 1.2 per cent of English queries and aimed to reward ‘high quality’ engaging content. It was designed to punish sites who engage in low quality content and those who wrote hundreds of low quality articles in a bid to game the system. Content now needed to be factually correct and contain few adverts.
Google completed two updates of Panda in February with the latest update said to be made gradually over time instead of all at once. This meant that SEOs were less likely to see this affect them at a large scale.
May 2013 – Penguin 2.0
In May 2013 Google overhauled the Penguin update, naming it Google Penguin 2.0. Similarly to all Penguin updates this was designed to tackle web spam around the internet.
The affected 2.3 per cent of English queries and was designed to boost the authority of sites producing good content. The main change was reported to be that Penguin 2.0 was able to perform a more detailed analysis on a sites backlinks to determine quality, including analysing links to inner pages of the site.
This update benefited inbound marketers using in-depth insights and research pieces to inform their content. Websites that thrived following this included those that branded themselves well, and posted unique thought-driven content pieces.
August 2013 – Hummingbird 1.0
In August 2013 Google unveiled one the biggest updates to the natural listings in history, with the announcement hummingbird. This was the biggest change to the algorithm since 2009 and was reported to affect around 90 per cent of searches.
It allowed Google to recognise ‘full question’ searches instead of just individual keyword searches. This meant Google could rank answers to these searches better. This change was designed to make Google more human and offered better mobile device integration, including with the new Google voice system.
With hummingbird its possible for Google to understand the location of your home and know the shops stocking the product you are looking for, rather than just matching the words. With hummingbird the whole sentence is taken into account, meaning better results for the user
September 2013 – All keywords will be encrypted
Although not a search engine algorithm change, this update was a major change to the search landscape. In September 2013 Google announced that at some point all organic keyword data will be encrypted.
What this means is that no keyword data will be passed to analytics packages, stopping inbound marketers knowing which keywords drive business and sales. Although there are various ways to gauge keyword data, essentially SEOs lost one of the biggest tools in their arsenal.
Google suggested the change was made to provide ‘extra protection’ for users, however there has been many discussions about Google making the change to stop the NSA gaining access to search data.
Inbound marketers now need to focus on keyword themes and adjust their marketing efforts to reflect these themes. This can generally be delivered through marketing campaigns, which need to be constantly monitored to review their effectiveness.
What will happen in 2014?
2013 was one of the most challenging years for the SEO community. The scale of the updates undertaken by Google caused most inbound marketers to adapt their client search strategies. The focus has now changed from targeting individual terms and producing lots of content, to creating insight driven, thought provoking campaigns that are engaging and shareable.
The concept however has not changed, marketers need to create high quality engaging content, and it will be rewarded by Google.
What do you think will happen in 2014?