Google Search Algorithm Update - November 2011

Written on the 18 November 2011

It was recently announced by Google that they have made changes to their algorithm that will affect 35% of Google searches. For businesses with websites, these changes - along with the extra competition for keywords online - means that you need to get even smarter with your Search Engine Optimisation techniques and ensure that you're keeping on top of them. So, here's what you can do to ensure that Google's latest changes work well for you.

Re-evaluate your keywords

In May, Google released an update that reflected the increased use of long tail searches, which are searches that are more specific to the topic, but are searched less often. This means it's now time to rethink the keywords you've been using. You also may have added new services or products to your business, or found a new niche market, but you're not yet optimising your website for these. Then you need to look into the competition and local monthly searches may have changed for your existing keywords and some may not be as effective as they once were. These are all worth considering.

When you have your renewed list, ensure you do a good update of your website. Concentrate on re-optimising your titles, headings, backlinks, anchors, images and links within the text of your website. Of course, if you don't feel confident doing all this yourself, we have a very effective Search Engine Optimisation program which will help you greatly. 

Get Blogging

Blogs are a great way to optimise your website for your keywords. Choose a topic that you can write about, include your keywords in the blog, and ensure those keywords link to related pages on your website. Google identifies new blog posts as new content, which they rate very highly. With the Bloomtools blog tool, you can add a new post in minutes, and as a bonus, your post will feed into your Facebook, Twitter and RSS Feed, and will encourage your followers to engage with your content by allowing simple Facebook commenting.

Upload your newsletters to your website

Use your newsletters to reach your contact database as well as your website visitors by uploading them to a dedicated page on your website. Just as blogs are considered new content, so too are newsletter uploads. The other benefit of uploading your newsletters is that prospective subscribers can see the frequency of your newsletter releases, as well as their content, which can help convince them to subscribe to your newsletter.

If you have a Bloomtools Website and Database Marketing account, speak to us about getting a newsletter listing added to your website. Then all you need to do is tick a button each time you produce a new newsletter you want displayed on your website.

Regularly publish articles to your website.

What you're reading now is an Article. I uploaded this article by logging in to my Bloomtools Database Marketing account and using the Article listing tool to quickly and easily add this to the Bloomtools website.

Google also considers Article uploads to be new content. You'll see that throughout this article I've highlighted our major keywords like Website and Database Marketing and have linked them to the relevant pages on our website. All of this contributes to our Search Engine Optimisation and as a result, we end up on page one of Google for our keywords.

But there's another advantage of adding Articles to your website, and that's the ability to prove to your readers that you know your industry so well that you can regularly update your website with helpful and informative content. It sets you apart from your competitors as a market leader and makes you much more appealing to a prospective customer.

If you struggle with writing, or are time poor, you may find some very experienced freelance article writers that can provide you with a library of great articles for a very reasonable price.

Use your social media presence

Integrating your website with your social media presence is a way of strengthening your incoming traffic and viewer engagement. If people are following you on Facebook, and you update your website with a new blog post, a notification can be sent to your Facebook followers encouraging them to visit your website and read your blog. This extra traffic is noticed by Google, and is considered favourably by the search engine algorithm.

If you are new to social media and don't know how to get started, watch our webinar. Please note, though, we have added some new functionality to our tool since recording this, so for a full social media syndication features list, please speak to your local Bloomtools Consultant.

It's worth taking the time to do all this

Search engine optimisation is such an important area to work on. Once you start getting an influx of good quality leads from your website you'll be glad you took the Internet seriously. You have heard us say this before, but 78% of all people when looking for a business, service or product research online first, and if they are not finding you they are finding your competitors.  This is a new area of marketing - it's only been around for the last decade - and it's going to get much stronger, which means that the faster you get started with it, the greater the results will be.