We get this question a lot from our search engine optimization (SEO) clients – what will happen to my rankings if Google changes their algorithm for how they determine rankings? In this article, we are going to take you through what it means for your business when algorithm updates happen from Google and how you can avoid costly punishments to your website’s rankings.
Why Does Google Change the SEO Algorithm Rankings in the First Place?
To answer this question, we first need to go through a brief history of a few examples and why the algorithm changes helped the overall customer experience for those who use the search engine. Back when Google’s search engine platform wasn’t nearly as advanced as it currently is, it was much easier for digital marketers to exploit the rankings.
An example of this is that in Google’s earlier days, the main factor they would consider to rank a website was how often the exact search term appeared on the website. Let’s say you’re trying to rank on the first page for “Personal Injury Lawyer Scottsdale”. What marketers and website designers would do is copy and paste “Personal Injury Lawyer Scottsdale” in white font on the back-end of the website thousands of times so that it was unseen from the human eye, but when Google crawled and indexed the site, it would register that as the #1 search result.
Another example to show how the algorithm updates are not only a value add to the customers using the search engine, but also for the businesses trying to rank their websites in a fair way is that before another algorithm update, foul play would happen often. Google would punish your website if your domain was linked to on inappropriate sites. Business owners with questionable morals would then pay these inappropriate sites to link to their competitor’s websites, thus crippling their SEO rankings.
How Can You Prevent Your Website’s SEO Rankings From Getting Impacted by Algorithm Updates?
As you can clearly see from the previous two examples, the main goal of all Google updates to their SEO ranking algorithms are to help the customer experience and to punish those who are exploiting loopholes in the system. Therefore, the best way to not be impacted by algorithm updates is to work with an SEO firm in Scottsdale or your local city/area that only uses the industry-best methods to improve their websites rankings.
At Norba Design, we pride ourselves on helping our clients grow their business through improving SEO rankings only through what’s known as “white hat” methods which do not exploit any loopholes in the system and only use best practices.
Interested in learning more? Get in touch now to get your free SEO audit to identify key factors for how to grow your business in 2020 and reach your goals. Stop chasing after leads, let us help you get in front of your potential clients who are actively searching for what it is that your business does.
