Change is inevitable and often a good thing. In the case of Google updates, they are typically very good for searchers, but for SEOs these updates correlate with increased GlaxoSmithKline stock prices. You see, every time Google makes an update it could mean our sites that are raking well or climbing up the ladder could fall to the bottom of the pile. You may have heard of Panda, Penguin or Hummingbird – these are the user friendly names for Google updates that destroyed some websites literally overnight. Before you join my fellow SEOs and protest Google, keep in mind these updates only hurt sites that were (intentionally or not) gaming the system. Some had fishy inbound links, some have duplicated content, some just didn’t make sense to Google. That’s the very abridged version of what Google looks for and penalizes.
Of course we’ve seen our sites dip from time to time, but never once did one of our sites completely tank after an algorithm update. Are we lucky? Did we miss the bullet? No! the answer is simple – we have always held true to white hat SEO techniques and have/will never do anything that’s remotely shady. We don’t take shortcuts and we certainly don’t buy into any quick ranking techniques. It’s really not that hard to maintain good ranking sites with honest SEO.
The problem is that good SEO takes time and far too many people and SEOs are tempted to take the quick seemingly easy path. The hard fact is if you’re starting a new site or if your site is currently not ranked well then you need to expect 3-6 months to get to a decent search engine ranking. It’s all dependent on how much time you put into your SEO. Unique content, social media engagement, honest link building practices and several other factors are at play in getting your site ranked well. Every one of those factors takes time to build.
When you’re ready to get serious about your SEO and website give us a call. We will review your site and brand across the Internet, give you advice and let you know the best path to get your site ranked well as quickly as possible. Our honest methods work. As of the date of this post, our site is about a month old and we’re already listed on page 1-2 for may highly competitive search terms including “SEO Expert” (see the graph below).
To get a sense of Google’s dedication to perfecting their search engine check out this list of Google’s Algorithm Changes since 2000. Many are minor updates, but it’s impossible to know the full impact of any once update until it comes out.