2014 has almost come to a close, and we wanted to take some time to review some changes in the search world that could affect you, and may have already. Here are the five most significant Google changes of 2014…
Penguin Becomes Continuous
The most recent news is a shift in Google’s Penguin algorithm, the tool they’ve been using most heavily in recent years to combat web spam and improve their search functionality. In the past, updates to Penguin were released in batches (Penguin 1, Penguin 2, etc.), but Google is moving toward updating the algorithm continuously, as they make the changes, rather than scheduling major releases. The last confirmed update to Penguin was on Thanksgiving, and impact to search results is still unclear.
Removal of Local Carousel
Recently, there have also been changes to Google’s local search. If you’ve searched for things like restaurants or hotels in the past year and a half, you may have come across what Google referred to as the “carousel,” which looks like this:
This was their way of displaying a lot of results efficiently. But moving forward, Google announced in November that they have removed the carousel and replaced results for local searches with this:
It’s still unclear whether or not Google will keep the carousel format for other kinds of search results.
Elimination of Google Authorship
Perhaps the biggest change in search came in August when Google announced the termination of their Authorship feature. Authorship provided a way to link things like blog posts or updates you’ve written to your Google+ account, and it was a way of proving you’re a reliable source of information. Unfortunately, the program didn’t develop like they had hoped, so they decided to remove it from their search pages. Google claims that their tests show that removing authorship doesn’t seem to reduce traffic, so if you were an author, you probably don’t have to worry about your overall Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy.
Site Security as a Ranking Factor
This year, Google also got us to consider our security. In August, they announced that the use of secure connections by websites would be taken into account when ranking sites. If your website has an SSL certificate (https vs. http), it’s possible that you could see your rankings rise. Security is still not a huge ranking factor, but Google’s announcement implies that they will give it more weight as time goes on.
The Right to be Forgotten
In May, Google made headlines because of something that became known as the “Right to be Forgotten.” The European Court of Justice ruled that people concerned about unflattering search results about them can apply to have them removed. However, it’s by no means automatic; Google selects which results get removed, and they’ve rejected 58% of all requests. Don’t get excited and think this can work for your awkward high school photos, because this only applies in Europe.
Guest Blogging Comes Under Fire
Some of you may remember that many SEO professionals used to recommend having someone else in from your field write a guest post on your blog. But back in January, with just one blog post, Matt Cutts, head of Google’s webspam department, drove doubt into the hearts of guest bloggers everywhere when he declared that guest blogging is a waste of time. His comments were pretty controversial in the SEO world, and there’s still no concrete consensus. Our stance: we don’t think the practice is completely useless, but you’ve got to make sure that whatever you’re putting on your blog is engaging content, written by someone who knows what they’re talking about on a topic that’s relevant to your audience. Adversely, if you are approached with an opportunity to guest blog on someone else’s site, make sure that the website is of high quality and makes sense for your business and your target audience.
Whether or not any of these changes affected your agency, thinking about you website’s overall user experience and producing relevant and valuable content is always the best way to please the search engines and get the traffic you seek.