Changes to Googleʼs Algorithm

Roughly a week ago now, Google announced the latest in it's measures to cut out low quality websites from it's search results. Dubbed Panda 3.4, the change in algorithm has affected 1.6% of queries. With such a small percentage the changes should barely be noticeable you jest? With the hundreds of millions of searches occurring each day it was inevitable that some individuals would be left exasperated with arms flailing in the air.

Matt Cutt's, head of Google's search spam team pegged the update as only affecting those sites that were overly SEO'd. This, having rose to prominence due to the rise in saturation of certain market sectors with content that is just not relevant to the search.

But how does this affect everyday businesses? The intended effect will hopefully be further punishment for those who seek to clog their website with paid links, participate in blog networks and other such shady behaviour. Furthermore, if you are a law abiding, good quality content producing site you should see a rise in clout when it comes to rankings. Those who produce poor quality that borders spam, should equally be punished in proportion.

In short it's a further reiteration of the rules in which we should all be playing by. Make quality content on an engaging subject, SEO your site within the rules and let the traffic come to you. If you try to be underhanded and sneaky in regards to this, the Google hammer will eventually come down on you.