Google changes their search algorithm more than 500 times a year

The biggest search engine in the world, you’d never guess who, recently announced some more changes to their search algorithm.  The interesting thing to note is that Google doesn’t give away all their secrets and so most changes aren’t made public.  And actually those changes are happening right now as you read this blog post.  They made more than 500 “tweaks” last year.

Personalised search is the new black

Certainly the introduction of Google+ is going to impact the way that social media influences their algorithm, and even though the number of Google+ users is tiny compared to Facebook (for now anyway),  you can be sure that Google will be pushing their products.

Gmail, Google analytics, Google webmaster tools, Google+, Google reader, and the list goes on and on, are all being blended together.  And why wouldn’t they, after all they are incredible tools.  But the result is that web users are signing into their Gmail, or their Google+ and then continuing to browse websites and interact on the web.

Now this may be great for web users because it means that when they search for something on Google, the results are being produced based on their search history, their social media interactions and blogs that they follow.

But it’s making it a bit more complicated to get your website to come up in the searches.  And harder to determine how you come up on searches, because these searches are now becoming MORE PERSONALISED.

At this stage in the game, here’s 5 top tips for improving your search results.

1. Optimise your business for local search

The first thing you must do here is claim your Google places listing if you haven’t already.  Make sure that this listing is always current.  Add photos, information and offers to your Google places listing.

Ensure that the business name, address and phone numbers match EXACTLY on all your online profiles.  If you decide to use “Ave” instead of the full word “avenue” on your Google places listing, then make sure that your website contact details and all online directories use “Ave”.

Reviews are also exceptionally beneficial here.  Having reviews added to your Google places listing will help increase your chances of being found higher on the list when someone searches for one of your Google Places categories combined with your location.

So encourage happy customers to post review on your Google places listing.  Just don’t be too pushy.  Also reviews from some other online directories,for e.g. TrueLocal, can show up on your Google Places listing.

2. Social media is your new friend

You want lots and lots of Twitter shares “tweets and retweets”, Facebook “likes” and Google “+1’s”, so encourage social sharing of your website and your blog.

This is not something you can force people to do, but if you are producing current, interesting, entertaining and useful content then people will share this via their social profiles.

Also you need to be active in your Facebook business page, Twitter account (if you have one), Google+ and any other social media profile that you use.  If you haven’t already created a Google+ page for your business, then now is the time.

And make sure you provide links to your social channels on your website.

3. Quality content is king

Keyword optimisation is very important for SEO, but it’s useless without quality content.  Your keywords may get people to the door, but what use if the inside isn’t appealing.  They’ll just leave.

Focus on creating web content on your website and blog that just begs to be shared.  And in that high quality, informative, appealing and very interesting content, you target the keywords that you know people will type into Google when they are searching for your business products and services.

4.  Leave your web address around, but not in the trash

Building links back to your website will improve your search visibility.  This is a fact.  But just how well this works is up to you.  I compare this to handing out business cards.  Yes you could randomly thrust your business card at everyone you meet, but how many would quickly end up in the trash.

Instead a better way to do this would be to engage in conversation with a person, make a good impression, offer some helpful tips or ideas, create rapport and then leave them with your business card.

This is the approach you should have with building links back to your website.  Find blogs that are related to your industry in some way.  They don’t have to be direct matches, in fact back links will work better if the fields of interest are not exactly the same.

Find a current article that you find interesting on the blog, and then leave a comment.  Don’t just say something like “i really liked your ideas” or “you write really interesting articles”.  No you must make your comment specific about something in the article, ask a question, offer some feedback, relate the article to a story of your own, etc.

When filling out your details on the comment, type your name in as your first name | your business name and make sure you type in your exact website url name into the website field.  This is your backlink, which is great for SEO, but also if your comment is quite thoughtful, then someone who reads it may also be enticed to click on your link and check out your website.

Hey, there I am

Google and the other search engines are constantly changing the rules, but the aim is to always produce search results that are as relevant to the web user as possible.  So your goal should always be to produce quality content, that people will want to read, and want to share.  If you do this, then the search engines will find you.

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