An announcement of a Google algorithm update often strikes fear into the hearts of website owners everywhere. Fears of websites plunging in the search engine results page rankings runs rampant along with fears of websites being penalized for violating a Google policy about which little is known. It’s well known that Google penalizations are difficult to have removed once you get them, which compounds even more fears. So, what happens to your website when Google updates its algorithm? Here’s where you can breathe a sigh of relief because the answer, most often, is nothing.
Why Google Rolls Out Algorithm Updates
There are two main reasons that Google rolls our algorithm updates, the first being to improve their users’ experience. Google needs their users to be completely happy with all of the Google products, especially the search engine. With a team of developers constantly working on how to get searchers more accurate results quicker, it’s a wonder they aren’t updating their algorithm more frequently. Like any other business, Google’s customer satisfaction drives its practices.
The second reason you’ll find that Google has rolled out an update is because they’ve discovered that someone or someone’s have been successfully gaming their system. A good example of this is keyword stuffing. Websites began listing their keywords repeatedly, as in 20 plus times, in the meta tag section of the web code where the Google robots can see it but human viewers cannot. At the time, the Google algorithm picked that up as a positive, indicating that the page rated high in topicality, even though the page that was read by humans had nothing to do with the keywords stuffed in the meta tags. When Google discovered that this was happening, they updated their algorithm to penalize that behavior. They did release an advisory that they would no longer consider that an acceptable practice, giving enough time to correct the problem before they started to penalize websites.
Protect Your Website From A Google Algorithm Update
The only way to be 100% sure that your website will be safe from getting penalized in a Google algorithm update is to ensure that it’s constructed per Google’s optimization guidelines. The guidelines are simple to follow, but it’s not exactly an easy process. You or your web designer may want to push your rankings up with a little tweaking that’s not exactly favored by Google. Resist the temptation! Write, or hire someone to write, high quality content that focuses on the topicality of your website and your business. Ensure that the content adds value to your customer’s lives and you can’t go wrong. Not only will this be pleasing to the Google’s robots, but it will be enticing to your customers as well.
Make sure that your website is written and coded in compliance to Google’s white hat practices and you can rest assured that your website and your business with pass through every Google algorithm update unscathed.