Not long ago, the terms Penguin and Panda moved out of the realm of cute, cuddly animals and into our SEO lexicon with ruthless and devastating affect. Swinging swords of change, these algorithms chopped many (illegitimately) high-ranking sites down from their perches on the top SERPs.
It was a turbulent time in the world of SEO with both large-scale sites and mom & pop shops reporting major changes to their SERP positions. Panic and pandemonium ran rampant, and every announcement of an impending algorithm update left webmasters in a nervous, agitated state.
The King is dead
Penguin and Panda were assassins on a mission to remove sites that were utilizing black hat SEO techniques, such as link baiting, link farming, spammed back links, hidden content, etc.
They performed their task well, and search engines are in a better place for it. We can all relate to the frustration of clicking on a search result, only to arrive at the destination and realize the content has nothing to do with my search query. Thankfully, with the latest updates, this happens much less frequently.
The war is over
Now we can enjoy the peace. Google recently released Penguin 3.0 on October 17th and, for the majority of the world, it went relatively unnoticed. If anyone did notice a change in their ranking, it was most likely for the positive. Which, for a marketer like myself, is great news.
It means we can stick to the tried and true practices that have revealed themselves in 2015 PP (Penguin & Panda).
Content (and context) is the new King
And long live the King! For a while now, marketers have been throwing around the phrase “content is king” when it comes to SEO. Not only is the term proving to be true, but Google is working to take it even further.
Google previously took away keyword data and now the reason why has become increasingly clear. Additional algorithms, such as Hummingbird, have shifted Google’s focus to “things, not strings.”
This means the algorithm is much more focused on relationships. For example, to a human, a simple search query for “el toro” could either mean a Spanish bull or the last place you grabbed chips and queso with your friends.
If all this has your head spinning, don’t worry. At Current360, we can help you adapt to this changing landscape and prepare you for whatever cuddly, brutal animal comes next.
