If you are an online entrepreneur, or just run a part-time online business, then you have most definitely been affected by Google’s numerous and frequent updates drastically. This is due to the fact that the entire mechanism of online business runs around Google, such as Google Hummingbird, Google Penguin and Google’s Encrypting Search. Hence, in today’s world, without Google, you cannot imagine running an online business at all, and to make sure that you are ready to cope up with the drastic changes that Google makes to its system, here are the recent most changes to bring you up to speed.
#1: The Hummingbird Update
If you are an online entrepreneur, you most probably are aware of the fact that Google now uses the Hummingbird system to filter out question search queries from the rest to streamline the entire search engine process. Now this might not seem like a big deal to you. But it impacts your online business greatly, as Google is the driving force which brings visitors to your website. With the new algorithm streamlining search results, you will have to tweak the content on your website to cope with the new system, so that your website is not ignored by it whenever a question search query is made.
The major change which has been made and which affects you is that with Hummingbird, Google now pays attention to ALL of the words in a search query, instead of only the Keywords, as it used to previously. This has been done to make the search results as accurate as possible.
Even though this difference is not very noticeable from the viewers perspective, it will have a drastic effect on your online business(es). It is therefore imperative that you bring your business up to speed, start using long tail keywords instead of the one word keywords previously used, and become recognized by Google.
#2: The Penguin 2.1 update
The Penguin program is the mercenary Google uses to get rid of all the spam websites. Its most recent update was made on 4th October 2013, which means it took thousands of websites out of its list of websites eligible to appear in its search results. This is a matter of concern for you especially if you are running a content publishing website, as your website is bound to have a lot of keywords and phrases that match Google’s algorithm and database. Make sure you make your website look as credible as possible, and if your website contains any space which acts as a marketplace, ensure the payment method is verifiable and secure. This is important, otherwise the next Google Penguin update might just take your website down.
#3: Google now Encrypts Searches
This is perhaps the biggest blow that the recent Google updates have to offer you. Even though last year Google started to Encrypt search queries, it only did so for users who were logged into the Search Engine. This year, however, ALL the search queries are encrypted, which means that you will no longer be able to receive data of those precious keywords that you have been using to bring people to your website. The concept of using short keywords is over, and your best bet is guessing what phrases the users may Google up to land on your website.
How to go about making your website Google Update proof
Well, this is not an easy question to answer, but there are a few guidelines which you may follow to ensure that your website always stays ahead of the curve of the frequent Google Updates:
- Make sure you keep yourself up to date with the latest Google updates. You never know what new challenge the Google team might throw at you;
- Analyze how the new update affects your website, and make relevant changes according to that;
- Make sure you make your website run as smoothly as possible. Google does not like slow running websites, so speed matters in this case;
- Make sure you include relevant data on your website that is important to the users of Google. If you do so, no update Google may ever provide will be able to keep people away from your website.
