Schedule Consult

SEO: Google Algorithm = New Years Party Venue Selection

by BANG! Website Design • January 08, 2016

Google search algorithm works much like our decision-making process for where to celebrate the New Year. We both want to go where "It's Happening!" Did you go out and celebrate the New Year? How did you decide where to go? Did you pick someplace where people were partying and having a good time?

Partying and having a good time...

Or did you pick a nice quiet spot where nothing much happens? Kind of like this place where the lonely bartender is all by himself, still hasn't taken off his Christmas hat, and he's drinking alone?



If you are like Google, you picked the place where things were happening. What do I mean? Google's algorithm has been tuned to reward sites with "things happening." Let's be honest. You don't want to spend New Year's Eve by yourself watching the bartender. You want to be where the party is, where people are having a good time and living it up. So what does the Google algorithm see as living it up? Frequency of activity. How does it know when something new has arrived? Googlebot tells it what's new.

Googlebot is Google's search spider that scours the web looking for only 3 things...
 
#1 - What's New

#2 - What's Changed?

#3 - What's Gone

What's New
includes new websites that have launched, new pages that have been added to existing sites, and new links to other sites or pages.

What's Changed includes content (text, photos, or video) that has been added to an existing page or links that now point to a different site or page.

What's Gone can be complete sites that have gone offline, perhaps never to return, pages that have been deleted, content that has been removed, or links that have disappeared.

What do all of these have in common? Activity! Changes to a website that Googlebot sees and reports. Some of these changes are indicative of a boring party... Websites closed, pages that 404 (Not Found Errors), or perhaps no change at all. On the other hand, some changes indicate this is where things are happening. New pages, fresh content with the latest discussion on a topic, and new links both within the site and off to other authoritative sites. These are the changes that Google looks for and rewards with higher search rankings. They DO NOT want to send their "customers," those that use Google to search the Web, to boring sites that haven't changed since there was a Bush in office.

For SEO purposes, how do we make it look to Google like there is a party going on? We do a number of things to make sure Googlebot sees activity. Ideally, this will be a combination of activities both on the site itself (On-site or On-page SEO) and across the Web (Off-site SEO). On-site SEO, we want a steady and frequent increase in the number of pages and content on the site itself. For instance, adding a new page that discusses your latest product or service, an announcement about an event or award you've received, or a new blog post with your slant on a topic related to the site. All of these activities will be noticed by Googlebot. Off-site SEO involves getting the site noticed elsewhere on the Internet. New links from other sites to yours, preferably from an authoritative site that has been around for a while.

Your blog getting indexed and linked from other sites. Video marketing, such as posting new videos on YouTube, will most certainly get noticed. If your site needs to be found for local search listings, get links from sites like the BBB, Chamber of Commerce, or directories like Manta and Merchant Circle. Essentially you want to create a "buzz" across the Internet about your site so Googlebot can't miss that your site is the place to come to "Celebrate New Year's Eve" or whatever your target keyword phrases are.

By the way, Social Media posts don't carry any weight with Google. 

Does SEO work? Absolutely! We've been successful at moving many sites up in the search rankings with a combination of both on-site updates and off-page work to get the buzz building about your company. So I ask you now, on December 31st do you want to be celebrating or watching a lonely bartender? If it's the former, contact us now so we can get started giving your business success worth celebrating next year.