Google is constantly changing its algorithm. In fact, the company says it makes approximately 500 changes each year. These changes, as we saw with the Panda update, can have a huge impact on a site’s rankings. In its latest attempt to be transparent about its search algorithm, Google discussed some of its recent changes, some of which might affect your site’s placement.
Some of the most recent changes that might affect your rankings include:
1. Page titles: Google says it will be looking at the anchor text in links that point to a page and will be putting less emphasis on boilerplate links with duplicate anchor text. This will help Google find more relevant page titles that are specific to the content on the page.
2. Ranking fresh content: According to Google, it has made a significant improvement on how it crawls and indexes fresh content. This change will affect approximately 35 percent of total searches.
3. Original content: Google added new signals so it can better predict which site is the original source of content (if two sites have the same content). This will help with duplicate content issues and will give credit to the original source, not the source that copied the content.
4. Image result freshness: One of the changes will help Google find the freshest images more often.
5. More fresh and complete blog results: Google made a change to the blog search index to get coverage that is more comprehensive and fresh.
While some of Google’s changes might affect your rankings, there are several things you can do to keep up. For example, you need to make sure the content on your site is timely, fresh and unique. A blog, for instance, is a good way for you to stay current and comment on the latest legal topics. Not only is this good for Google, but it will also keep you in front of your targeted audience and will show your potential clients that you are not only a player in your industry, but a leader.
For more information about the latest changes and how they might affect your site, contact the SEO experts at eJustice to schedule a free consultation and site analysis.
Happy holidays!
