It’s part of the SEO world. Knowing what Google is doing regarding their algorithms and especially their updates. Missing just one piece of data could mean a crash in statistics and losing out to the competition. Therefore keeping on top of the latest changes is mandatory to your SEO strategy. Let’s take a look at the four major Google algorithms and the latest updates.
First is Google’s most famous, Panda.
Panda’s primary job is to separate the chaff from the wheat regarding websites with less than quality content. Sloppy and incompetent writing, spelling, grammar, all figure into the equation of what Panda will use to get rid of the less than optimum sites. Also the content. Google’s Panda is looking for original content not the same re-hashed stuff you see all over the place. Marketers do this because they figure to make so many sites that they’ll dominate the search engines. It worked for a while but the search engines have gotten wise to the tactic and due to complaints of surfers, Panda is set to thwart these types of strategies and its update in May 2014 was supposed to do just that.
Penguin Updates From Google
The launch of the Penguin algorithm in April of 2012 was a big push to get rid of the sites of questionable repute. Spammers got their noses bloodied and fat lips and black eyes when Penguin rolled through Google. Sites that were full of all sorts of bad links, redirects, outright spam scams and the like. These sites were built for one reason, to get Google ranking but had become the bane of the existence on the web. Penguin then graduated to update 2.0 and the battle continues. The use of spammy inbound links is another reason for Penguin, primarily it’s senior action. The scams of link building from rotten links just undermined the value of Google and surfers weren’t getting anywhere near the valuable information that they needed. Now with Penguin 2.0 and other updates on the way the unethical link building scammers are on their defense and losing ground.
Hummingbird came out with an update 2013. The mission of Hummingbird was an advance in the technology of search engines by focusing on semantics. This means that conversations, more realistic ones, could be analyzed on websites instead of bland copywriting and robotic texts. Real communication is what Google is looking for and supporting real interaction thanks to the explosion of social media. Now, software algorithims like Hummingbird are able to detect such information and then gauge rather the content is worthy or not. This is a great advantage because it will lead to an algorithm that will be smarter, sharper, and valuable to quality webmasters and provide the public with content that is of worth and not just pablum.
This is valuable also because it allows Hummingbird and Google to deliver better search query answers that are best targeted to the user’s position such as their geo position, preferences etc..
So powerful is the Hummingbird algorithm that it changes the game and continues to do so. This has brought about a surge in webmasters on the daily hunt for copywriters of quality. No more hacks but writers who can engage an audience and get relevant data out there. This can put an end to copywriting farms located in poorer countries where articles are churned out daily and clog up the search results. Looking for that faster, cheaper copy for a website is turning out to be a very bad investment thanks to Hummingbird.
Pigeon Comes Home To Roost
Not to forget the importance of search engines and local listings, the Pigeon software used by Google was updated in 2014. In July of that year just to improve local search engine results. This was a big help in allowing people to find the businesses and information from their own regions and not get hampered by a plethora of unrelated results. Sites that specialize in local results like YP, InfoUSA and others benefit highly from this algorithm update and future updates promise to be even more efficient.
These improvements means that Google is on the path of ridding themselves of all the schlocky websites out there and one day will be the bane of the existence of spammers and disreputable website marketers.