Understanding Google’s Algorithm update: Fred

Let’s identify who Fred is and discuss how we can protect ourselves against google’s Algorithm update

Who is Fred?

During March 2017 website owners were noticing a drop in ranking. No announcements were made about Google algorithm updates at the beginning of March, which left people confused and questioning why their rankings had been hit. However, towards the end of the Month Google put us in the picture and explained that there hadn’t been a specific algorithm update, but in fact, Google did and still do daily updates to ensure quality websites are rewarded. Moving forwards, we now refer to all the general updates that happen as Fred.

More about the Fred updates

If you noticed changes in your rankings during March 2017 you weren’t alone. If your drop in ranking was sudden and unexplained it is likely that you have been hit by these Google’s updates. Websites entertaining the idea of black hat SEO techniques are penalised for these poor practices.

If you were / are doing one of some following, your drop in ranking can most likely be linked to these updates:

Too many ads on your website
The number of ads present on your website out numbers the content on your pages.
Thin content
The information and blog content are of poor quality, minimal and vague. If your content is of a low standard and doesn’t compare to other websites in your industry.
Aggressive monetization
Having too much focus on making money or encouraging a return using dodgy practices.
Mobile compatibility problems
A website design needs to be responsive and translate well when using a mobile phone and tablets.
Poor user experience (UX)
Content and website elements are disorganised, difficult to navigation, bad links and on-site errors.

Part of the Fred updates focused on tackling the above issues and from doing so informs us that Google are fighting back at websites which try to cheat the system. If your focus is on monetization rather than being a useful online resource, then your website ranking is likely to suffer. You may be unaware that these practices are questionable and if that is the case there are improvements that can be made. We can of course be proactive and ensure the above are not techniques being utilised on your website. However, if you are unsure about identifying the cause then its probably most effective if you get a professional to help you quickly identify the issue.

Let’s be proactive and work with Fred

Websites with excellent UX are favoured by Google. By making changes and working with white hat SEO techniques you will avoid penalties.

Although it can be difficult to identify general Google updates and their impact, it is generally a good idea to follow these practices. Use our check list to improve your website and it’s ranking.

Ensure your content and blogs are clear and relevant to the service you are providing
Add to or remove content that is thin
Regularly maintain your website, its content and ensure you have no errors
Remove ads or reduce the amount on your website so the ratio of content to ads is more fair
Check that your website is responsive and translates well to mobile and tablets
Don’t keyword stuff, and ensure the keywords used are relevant
Improve website trustworthiness
Give a clear indication of what your website is about
Build your website reputation through positive reviews, quality back links and awards

You can also use Google’s Webmaster Guidelines to cover the basics and gain a broader understanding. Alternatively contacting a professional to take your project on will help to manage the issues raised.

Last words about Fred

Ultimately, consider your visitors and users. Give then a quality story and explanation of your business/ service. Make their visit to your website one that is effortless and enjoyable – all in all a good experience. Show off your credentials and make your testimonials, reviews and awards noticeable to the world.

Finally, repeat after me… Quality, Quality, Quality

For more handy tips or expert input come and say hi at,

www.proactivemarketing.solutions

January 14, 2019December 12, 2022

What is Google Possum and is it impacting on your business?

This time we are taking a look at Google’s Possum update which was released in September 2016. It has since changed the landscape of Google’s local finder results and ranking.

The purpose of the Possum update has been to create greater diversity among local results and to reduce spam from ranking. This update has impacted on 64% of the 1,307 businesses investigated by Moz.com. As suggested by Moz, this could have been part of Possum of an alternative update. Thankfully there are a few ways of identifying whether the Possum update has influenced your business listings.

Is your business listed?

One of the main characteristics of Possum appear when business listings have disappeared. In actual fact Google has filtered them. One quick way to identify if this has happened to your business is to do a search of your business industry, such as florist or pharmacy followed by the location. If your business isn’t showing up on the 3-pack listing simply zoom in. Hopefully Google will look at the location with more detail of local businesses and identify your businesses presence.

Let’s understand this a little bit more, Google isn’t removing, giving penalties or preventing a business from ranking. It is in fact working like a filter by picking what it believes to be better quality results. It believes that you won’t want to see results that are too similar, hence the focus on diversity.

How has Possum influenced your business?

Searcher’s location

Factors to take on board is the way a user’s location influences what results are received. The results will vary if two users search the same query but one is in London and the other in Paris. This could be another reason why you can not see your business being listed.

Shared business addresses

If you have a business in an office block or business park where your address is the same as other businesses, even with a different business name, address (room, office or suite number in this case) and different phone number (NAP) Google is likely to filter most of the businesses out simply because they are at the same address. Unfortunately, for many businesses having the addition of a block, room or suite number hasn’t had any significant impact on improving address diversity. Specialist practitioners have noticed that genuine businesses have been caught up in the negative down falls of this update by being filtered out of query responses.

Registered locations

Prior to the update, businesses which were registered in a city because its included in the address. But these businesses were technically outside of the city’s borders have been suffering with ranking. Since Possum was implemented Joy Hawkins, an SEO practitioner, has noticed that some of these businesses rankings have rocketed in position. Moz.com tells us, “it has long been observed in the Local SEO industry that companies beyond city borders have little chance of earning local rankings for queries originating in those cities”.

Working with Possum to make improvements:

The Possum update seems to be harder to work with or escape compared to some of Google’s other updates like Panda and Hummingbird. However, its key to remember that Google, all in all, wants to deliver quality and relevant responses to our queries. Improve your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and demonstrate to Google that you are the best answer to search queries. This is likely to support your online presence.

Say hello…

We are happy to help and guide on the you issues covered in this article, so feel free to get in touch.

December 31, 2018December 12, 2022

What is the Google Pigeon Algorithm Update?

Pigeon was released in August 2013 and has been called ‘challenging’ in the area of local search ranking. Let’s look at what this means for businesses.

The Pigeon update implemented by Google has made its mark with Google maps search and the web search. The update seeks greater accuracy and relevancy but has impacted on some local searches. Resulting in some businesses experiencing fluctuations in internet leads. Additionally, it has updated its distance and location parameters.

Pigeon has changed its parameters

Pigeon aimed to connect local search algorithm more closely with the web algorithm and to make improvements on the ranking through looking more closely at parameters. Experts believe that the parameters were narrowed. This created a landscape of businesses being excluded from search results. During the early stages of Pigeon many businesses found themselves outside of the parameters. However, over the years Google has made further improvements to the way it analyses the distance between a business and the searcher.

By creating content that associates with the local area where you are doing business you will improve business presence. Producing images, articles and other forms of media will support your cause and give you a greater chance of ranking.

7 pack to 3 pack listing

It’s been reported throughout other algorithm articles that this roll out caused many challenges following the implementation of this update. One change being the old 7 pack style being replaced with the 3 pack listings. This has also affected the visibility of some businesses. Leaving many business owners wondering how they can improve their chances of being noticed and successfully competing for leads. Being ranked in the pack is usually influenced by a business’ organic ranking. Therefore, consider how you can build on and improve organic ranking through optimised and quality content, as well as links to reputable websites.

Additionally, work on getting some great reviews which will help with ranking as well as trustworthiness. Furthermore, fix any issues you have on your website making it fast and usable. These practical steps will give Google good signals about your site thus, in time improving your ranking. Moz.com advises us that, “Local SEO focuses on the citations, NAP consistency, and reviews. But let’s not forget about domain authority and good old-fashioned content and links.”

Read our blog on the Possum update to understand in more depth how Google filters its local search results.

Dealing with spammy businesses

Another initial issue was the increase of spam businesses finding their way into the listings and removing legitimate business. Currently, Google still relies on people reporting the violations and spammy business in order to make changes. Reporting online violations to Google to make room for genuine hard-working businesses is an important process. Reporting violations should to be done in a careful manner. Follow Googles guidelines and don’t report legitimate business which might be your competition.

Feel free to get in contact to discuss any issues or guidance required.

December 5, 2018December 12, 2022

A Must Read: The Breakdown of Google’s Algorithm Panda

Okay, so we’ve looked at the Hummingbird update, now it’s time for Google’s algorithm to karate chop his way through the door and explain himself!

Who or what is Panda?

Panda looks at tackling online issues such as plagiarism, keyword stuffing, spamming, thin content and duplication. The Panda Algorithm was named after a Google engineer named Navneet Panda (by Moz.com) who played a major role in the algorithm breakthrough. Initially, Panda acted like a filter with the aim to down score websites that were using black hat techniques. In 2016, Panda was integrated into the core algorithm, mainly because Google no longer expected to implement further updates to Panda’s functioning.

Why was the Panda algorithm implemented?

Some people may believe all they need is a website and some questionable and not so honest creativity to draw in customers. Businesses trying to function online will often have an interest in
ranking as highly as possible on search engines like Google. But, it’s the way we do this that matters to Google. Some individuals may have used techniques like keyword stuffing or plagiarism to build an online presence. However, since Panda has been on the scene website users like this, will find it difficult to function as now, these poor practices will influence their ranking.

Practices we need to avoid include, content farming which is all about writing, duplicating or plagiarizing short articles that explore many subjects, so Google believes that a website has the answers to a user’s queries thus sending us to a site that doesn’t have quality or useful content. This in turn leads neatly into the crack down on a lack of trustworthiness.

Websites that don’t have terms and conditions or privacy policies will be down scored by Panda. Make sure that your advert to content ratio is sensible and balanced is advised by Google. Other practices that Panda doesn’t like are:

Mentions of deals or sales in titles but when you have accessed the website there is no mention of either.
Website that have been reported or blocked by users will be down scored by Panda.
Panda has a big issue with poor quality content that is littered with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.
The algorithm will pick up on high bounce rates, visitors who don’t come back and low click through rates.
Panda really, really, really doesn’t like machine generated content software. This one is a big No.

What changes can be made to keep on the right side of Panda?

Whilst it is important for us to recognise the role Panda plays in quality controlling online content and practices there might be other reasons why you may have had a drop in organic traffic. It’s always good to take in the bigger picture and consider issues such as, the time or year, fluctuations in potential customers’ expenditure and an increase in like-minded business in your local area – your competition!

We have put together a few tips to keep on Panda’s good side and out of his little black book. Make sure you evaluate old content like articles, blogs and website information and quality control your future content ensuring it doesn’t have spelling mistakes. It’s worth it– you will be rewarded by Panda for producing high quality content.

Proactive Marketing Solutions suggest you try to get a HTTPS secure encryption to show Google that you are trustworthy. You can use tools like a plagiarism checker, such as Copyscape and spelling and Grammar software like Grammerly to support you in producing quality content.

What’s the point?

As we’ve suggested, Panda can impact on your ranking, which might make it harder for organic traffic to find you if you use poor practices and black hat techniques. Your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) plan should be built on approaches that are deemed, by Google, as being positive and honest, such as a getting a secure encrypted website and producing quality content.

Google reward websites that give users a great on-site experience, add value and sites that are easy to navigate. Surely these are principles that you would want to work with? After all, my guess if Google would probably win the ranking war.

For additional support with ranking and SEO contact us today for expert guidance and support.

November 21, 2018December 12, 2022

A must read: The breakdown of Google’s algorithm Hummingbird

What is Google’s algorithm Hummingbird update all about? Let’s take a closer look…

What is hummingbird?

The Google update, Hummingbird, came into force in September 2013 but unlike other updates like Panda and Penguin, Hummingbird is more of a complete change of approach. Its been named Hummingbird due to its precision and speed.

The purpose of hummingbird is so Google can interpret natural language and respond effectively. It has taught Google to understand our intent when doing a search. Rather than looking at each keyword, Google can now look at the whole search query for context. Once Google has analysed its users search query it focuses on delivering us greater localization of results, which in turn, gives us answers which are relevant thus useful. In summary hummingbird is designed to improve the quality of its answers.

Why has Google implemented the Hummingbird updates?

For those of us old enough to look back ten years ago and remember where we were technologically it is clear why we might need these updates. A decade ago social media platforms were beginning to evolve and gain popularity, but we weren’t using voice searches or mobile phones to do searches on Google. Times have changed. Social media platforms are now central to our everyday lives and, with 40% of smartphone users benefiting from voice recognition to text its no wonder Google has applied these updates. We are literally talking to Google throughout our day. Therefore, Google have made changes to ranking, online content and links with the purpose of improving our experiences.

After all, search engines like Google are there to serve us and be as helpful as possible. As humans we adapt and change all the time and if technology wants to keep up, the likes of Google, also need to stay relevant.

What changes need making since Hummingbird?

If your ranking has been affected since hummingbird we would advise you change the way you use keywords and begin to implement long-tail and conversational terms. Hummingbird no longer uses seed/ head keywords which means site owners and marketers need to evaluate current and previous content with the intention of weaving in long tail keywords. Sites which have focused on
long tail keywords have experienced greater success. Using phrases like who, what and where are proven to help with ranking as these are the types of organic language that people are using when typing and speaking. Additionally, by ensuring your site is mobile-friendly and running at a good speed will give you better ranking.

Let’s recap on Hummingbird

Finally, Hummingbird is all about making Google more human. It aims to deliver the highest quality and relevant sites in response to your search query needs. Google has gained an ability to interpret our vague searches and colloquial tones of voice but nevertheless you still want to create a sense of clarity throughout your site as you want Google to direct users to your site because its clear you have the answers. Google have been reasonably transparent about the updates which means we can make changes to our sites if our ranking has been affected. However, it has been said that the Hummingbird update hasn’t had too many negative results.