I’ve been noticing some fluctuation with SERP’s rank for different websites in multiple niches, and had been thinking we were entering another Google dance.
Turns out, we are actually mid-tango. Google rolled out changes this week to its search algorithm that affect 11.8% of queries for US users. That’s huge. Over 1 in 10 search results is now different, and a lot of the little guys just got a chance to adapt and up their rank, if you know how to react to the change.
According to the article, “It is important for high-quality sites to be rewarded, and that’s exactly what this change does.”
So, who got hit?
Article marketers got kicked where it hurts during this update, but the article directories themselves got hit hardest. Sites like ezinearticles, hubpages and buzzle look to have lost double and triple digit position rank in search results.
We’ll need to monitor the affect of this after sites are spidered and reindexed using the new algorithm to see how we shake out.
Who is safe?
It’s too early to tell for sure, but sites that have quality content seem to be coming up higher in the rankings. If I were you I would focus more attention on bounce rates and time on site. It looks like G may be penalizing duplicate content and low quality backlinks more heavily now, which is good news for folks that create original articles that are useful for visitors and get shared and discussed at on-topic forums, blogs and sites.
Read Google’s blog post detailing the change here.
So, have you been noticing your websites jump around in the rankings? Let me know what you’ve experienced in the comments below.
Article marketing techniques as they have been used in the past may be dead ( or seriously wounded) but quality articles are still the backbone of Internet content.