How much impact will the new changes to Google search have on existing SEO practices?
One of the things I always do when I put up a new website, or even a single page, is to use basic SEO practices, mainly so it can actually be found without using the URL. Google is changing things up again, and I'm wondering if I'm going to have to go in and make changes to a lot of existing websites to make the revised algorithm happy. Most of the search refinements in the past by Google have been for the better, especially knocking down the junk sites full of nothing but links and terms strung together. However, I'm concerned that using existing SEO techniques could be viewed as a negative factor in new Google search rankings. Are the new Google search engine changes going to have an impact on legitimate websites?
Answers
Well let's hope they don't screw things up for legitimate sites. I have no problem with them penalizing the junk sites, but I sure hope they don't screw over sites that are doing things the right way.
If anybody isn't familiar with these changes, see this article:
Google’s SEO warning: We’ll start cracking down on overuse of SEO
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/information-technology/048799-google-s-se...
"Google is preparing to crack down on websites that are “overusing” search engine optimisation techniques, in order to level the playing field between sites that use these methods and others that rely on using fresh, relevant content.
“Over the past few years there have been more techniques appearing that have been about the math rather than about what Google is trying to achieve,” says StewArt Media chief executive Jim Stewart.
“And that’s what they’re trying to change here.”
Google’s Matt Cutts, part of the search quality group, said at a panel the company will attempt to “level the playing field”.
"We try to make the GoogleBot smarter, try to make our relevance more adaptive, so that if people don't do SEO we handle that,” he said, according to Search Engine Land."
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Unlike pay per click advertising, the use of SEO is becoming crucial and over technicallity when not done properly according to its guidelines.
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One never knows for sure with Google. I think there is a top secret repository somewhere that contains the formula for Coca-Cola, KFC's blend of spices and details of Google's search algorithm. From what I've seen, much of the change will be noticeable when people are searching for specific information using more or less natural language, and answers generated utilizing semantic search technology will appear along with the "normal" search result links. What this means, I think, is that SEO will evolve to include semantic considerations. There are some open standards available that can provide some guidance on this front, such as schema.org, but I don't know how closely Google will follow those existing standards. Probably close enough that you can get a handle on the basics of how to semantically mark up your content.
One thing that does raise my eyebrows is the revelation that the search engine will penalize "over-optimized" sites. Hopefully that means the word list/link bank sites. Where is the line between over-optimized and perfectly optimized? Only Google knows.