Google rolled out yet another update recently, dubbed the hummingbird update. This update is different than many of their updates in the past. The main goal of this update is to show results for longer tail search inquiries. Specifically it is meant to return better results for mobile searchers using voice for their search queries.
This is a significant update as it changes the way sites are going to receive traffic. It is starting to move away from short keyword term searches and concentrate on returning more accurate results for the longer search queries many users are inputting. Knowing this, there are a few things site owners can do to take advantage of this new update.
Knowing that Google is looking to return answers to search queries posed as conversational questions site owners would do well to add content that is question and answer based. A great way to do this is to add content that focuses on questions and answers, similar to the format seen on Yahoo Answers. Instead of focusing on keywords and keyword density, adding content that poses a question that your target visitors may ask and then giving a detailed answer or explanation is going to help take advantage of this change and bring more traffic to your site. For example, this post could be made into a question and answer type of format by reformatting it from informative to question and answer.
I could do this by starting with a question of “What is the new Hummingbird update from Google, and how should I format my website to improve search results?” Starting with that question, I would then provide the answer, giving detailed information on the Hummingbird update and then going over detailed ways a website could improve their results.
In addition to formatting content in question and answer format, site owners should make sure their website is mobile friendly. This should include a mobile site with scaled down content and images that will load faster on mobile devices. Since the Hummingbird update is targeting conversational queries that many users are imputing using voice on mobile devices, it is a natural extension that optimizing for mobile devices is going to improve your search results and position.
Get More: http://seotacklebox.com/blog/googles-hummingbird-update-what-you-need-to-know/
Google has been on a rampage lately with a large number of updates rolling out. Today we are going to look at Google’s updated page layout algorithm.
For those who do not know, the page layout algorithm was rolled out early this year. Basically it uses your on page layout to send ranking signals to Google’s main algorithm. It is essentially a part of their overall algorithm. It is meant to reduce spam sites and sites that offer little to no use to their visitors. You know the types – sites so filled with ads that you cannot find the content you want. While getting those sites out of the index is good, the unintended consequences are that quality sites like yours may have been caught up in this update.
The good news here is that you can fix these issues. They are all on site issues, and are all directly under your control. With a little bit of knowledge and time, you can correct what is ailing your site with regards to this ranking signal.
The main point of this algorithm is that Google wants to see content above the fold. The fold is basically where your site bottoms out in the browser window when someone visits it without scrolling down. If you view your site and do not scroll, everything you see is considered ‘above the fold’. For example, this screen shot shows everything considered ‘above the fold’ from our home page:
Using our home page as an example, you can see that there is plenty of content above the fold. If someone visits this site, they will see a clean navigation to get where they want to go. It is not muddied up with links to every internal page. Additionally, you will notice there are no ads on this page. While you can have ads above the fold (and we do on internal pages, such as most of our blog pages), what you do not want to do is create a site where the ads distract from the users experience.
Also notice that our header is not taking up the whole page. Shrinking your header and related images down so they are thinner brings more of your content up higher on the page. This is what the page layout algorithm is looking for.
There are other small things that we believe help with the page layout algorithm. Notice that we have contact information displayed prominently. Google likes contact information and it is likely that this is part of their page layout algorithm. If you think about it, a shady website is not going to make it easy to contact them, while an upstanding, quality site certainly is. Google wants the upstanding quality sites in their index.
Read More: http://seotacklebox.com/blog/what-you-need-to-know-about-googles-updated-page-layout-algorithm/
