In November, Google announced another algorithm change that, depending on the type of website you maintain, may have influenced your search rankings. This change was updated a bit more in December, and is expected to have an even greater influence in 2012.
To put it simply, Google will now be taking into account the freshness of the search and the trends that are happening on the Internet. For example, if you do a search for iPhones, the algorithm will assume you want information on the iPhone 4s, rather than the iPhone 4. If you search for the score for the Bronco’s game, the results will feature the most recent score, assuming that you don’t want last weeks scores.
Likewise, trends are playing a major impact. If you search for information on a celebrity that just got caught for a DUI, you’ll see the news stories about the DUI charges before you find the celebrity’s fan page.
So the big question is, how can you leverage these changes to your benefit? It’s pretty easy, and your blog is the answer. These tips will help your analytics, and keep you ranking on Google:
- Blog often. The freshness boost to the algorithm makes it imperative to have fresh content. Changing your website content may help, but blogging regularly insures that you have a site that is current and relevant.
- Link often. Anytime you blog about trending issues, be sure to include a link to a major news source, even if it’s in a source line at the bottom of the page. While not a guarantee it will increase your rankings, Google will likely consider it related and boost your results a bit.
- Ride the coattails. Pay attention to the local and national news. Set up RSS feeds for keywords that are relevant to your site. When something big hits the news, like the celebrity DUI, blog away! Google favors trends very highly, and there is no reason not to take advantage of the rankings boost if it’s relevant to your topic or niche.
