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How Google's latest algorithm changes affect
your website
Google improves its ranking algorithm on an ongoing basis.
During the last weeks, Google changed three things on the
result pages that are visible to all Google users.
The changes are an improvement for searchers but they might
be bad for your website.
1. Google has increased the snippet length. Less visitors
for you?
Google now shows an extended snippet for queries that consist
of three or more keywords. The idea behind this change is
that these multi-word queries are very targeted and complex.
The usual short snippet might not contain enough information.
What does this change mean for your website?
The longer snippet contains much more information. As Google
tries to provide the user with the most relevant information
in the snippet, the snippet might already contain the answer
to the user's query. The longer snippets might result in the
following:
Fewer users might click through to your website because they
get the answer to their question in the search results.
Users might begin to use more multiple-word queries to get
more detailed search result snippets.
As the longer snippets need more space, the longer snippets
move another result page below the fold and web surfers will
see fewer results at first glance. That increases the importance
of very high rankings.
It seems that Google ignores the meta description tag for
the snippets. That means that you must include a call to action
in your web page titles.
2. Google now shows more related searches at the bottom of
the results
When you search for a keyword, Google will display related
searches at the bottom (and sometimes at the top) of the search
results.
For example, if you search for the keyword "principles
of physics", Google will suggest "angular momentum,"
"special relativity," "big bang" and "quantum
mechanic" as related terms that could help you find what
you need.
What does this change mean for your website?
It's important that you optimize the different pages of your
website for different keywords. Do not concentrate on a single
keyword but cover a wide range of keywords so that Googly
will classify your website as relevant to the complete topic.
The more related keywords and pages can be found on your
website, the better.
3. Google now shows local results based on IP addresses
Search Google for the keyword "pizza" and you'll
see local results in the middle of the search results. These
local results are delivered based on the IP address of the
searcher. That means that you will get different results than
people in another city.
What does this change mean for your website?
It's now easier to rank for competitive keywords for some
local searches. While it's very difficult to get a high ranking
for a very competitive keyword such as "lawyer"
in the regular results, it's much easier to be listed for
that keyword in the local results if you're living in a small
town.
You should submit your website to Google Maps so that web
surfers can find you in these local searches. You can submit
your website to Google Maps with IBP's semi-automatic directory
submitter.
If you run a local business, you should include your business
name, your category and the name of your city in the title
tag of your homepage.
If you want to get on top of Google's search results then
your website must have optimized content and good inbound
links. If you give Google what it wants then your website
will get the best possible rankings.
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