Google has been very active recently after not releasing a major update for the best part of 18 months to a year. They released what is being called the ‘Possum Update’ which, although unconfirmed, is thought to have changed 64% of local rankings. The major confirmed update that has affected the way you rankings are looking comes from Penguin.
For those that don’t know the Penguin algorithm update sets out to drop the rankings of websites who are ‘playing the system’ or using Black-hat tactics to move the website artificially. The aim of any SEO is to be as natural as possible. Content is king as it is very hard to fake and must use factual, useful information. If you, or your SEO company use methods that break the webmaster guidelines then it is Penguin that will punish you and drop the website out of the rankings.
So with the latest updates to Penguin we now no longer have to wait for the latest version of Penguin to either recover from penalties or be punished by them as it is all real-time. Penguin is now part of the core algorithm that works constantly crawling millions of pages and judging them on a daily, if not hourly, basis. It is great news for those that play by the rules and wish to be rewarded for adhering to what Google have asked of them. For those that claim to put websites on page 1 within a matter of days or weeks and then play the system it can be a worrying time.
It is still very early to know what the real-time updates mean for SEO in general but everything seems to be moving towards the fact that if you break the rules you will not get away with it for very long.
What does this mean for your business though?
In short, it means that it is now more important than ever to ensure your SEO company are doing work that adheres to the Google guidelines or that does not stray to far. Unfortunately there are many companies that use old methods that will be punished by latest and upcoming algorithm changes, a quick review of the work of a company can quickly give you an idea of the kind of methods that the company is prone to.
If you have any worries about your own SEO or if you have seen a drop in rankings since the end of September then why not get a free SEO report from Twenty-Two Creations now! We can either put your mind at ease or help you to recover lost rankings and make your website a strong position 1 contender again.