Changes to SEO algorithms

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) has always been one of the best ways of ensuring a successful website. By correctly utilising SEO techniques, a business could ensure a high search engine placing and therefore more sales enquiries. Changes to SEO algorithms are happening frequently, so it's something to be aware of.  

Traditionally, SEO has always been about making sure that a customer's key words are featured heavily throughout a website, without it becoming repetitive and boring.

Recent changes to Google's SEO algorithms are making life very interesting for SEO experts all across the globe, however.

Google's latest update, Venice, came out in April 2012 and is designed to make your search results more personal to you. Essentially, if you are searching for a product or service and typed in 'used cars', the algorithms will only provide you with results local to you. To do this, Google utilises IP addresses to work out where you are and provide you with results accordingly.

Google's official explanation is as follows:

'Improvements to ranking for local search results. This improvement improves the triggering of Local Universal results by relying more on the ranking of our main search results as a signal.'

While it is clear to see the benefits of such an update, it is inevitably going to raise some eyebrows. Businesses that target audiences from more than one region may find it difficult to properly optimise their site to cover all required areas under this new initiative.

The other concern that SEO specialists have with Google Venice is the possibility of more than one place name being mixed up. For instance, there is a Gillingham in Dorset and one in Kent. This throws up the possibility that both these place names could end up in your search engine results, given that your website will be optimised for that one place name.

It is fair to say that it will take some time before everybody truly understands all of Google's algorithm changes. Certainly these changes are being done to benefit genuine and well designed and written websites but what it means for traditional search engine optimisation remains to be seen.