May Day And Caffeine: What To Maintain, What To Change With Website Positioning
Google has introduced two major changes to its search algorithms – Caffeine, of course, and last month the May Day update, which changed the way Google indexes long-tailed queries, or queries in which a user enters multiple key words. While Caffeines formal introduction is significant, the May Day changes appear to have caught SEO marketers by surprise. It has caused the displacement of countless numbers of websites from Google’s search index as the relevancy algorithms changed, according to Small Business Computing. For long-tail queries, Google now just considers them as all other queries and place as much value on them as we do into shorter queries, explains Maile Ohye, senior developer programs engineer at Google.
“In a nutshell, content is king,” Ohye said
Ever since Caffeine – a new technology that improves the company’s indexing infrastructure – was first announced SEO marketers thought of it as a game changer. In truth it is not about real time or semantic search, Tom Shivers, president of CaptureCommerce, tells MarketingVOX. “Google engineers have said that Caffeine – or rather, webpage speed – won’t trump relevance, unless speed is the only differentiator between two sites.” Better, he says, to focus on more fundamental changes to improve search. As it happens, these strategies will also help marketers keep abreast of the changes introduced with May Day.
1. Address the real intent of your target audience. “Ask yourself, ‘What purpose does someone have for using a certain search term?’ We see a lot of businesses push brand names and industry buzz words instead of creating web content that addresses the intent of target audience. Yes, it’s true that businesses have an agenda when they create a website but web searchers have their agenda as well. The degree to which those two overlap is where you have engagement.”
2. So engage. “Offer up content for the individual so he or she wants to learn more and discover a credible organization in the process. Rather than assuming your customers buy for certain reasons, research them to find out why they buy and then prepare a pathway that sits in their decision process.”
3. Consider what kind of medium communicates best with this person. Interactive tools, social tools, email or a combination?
4. Then consider new ways of engaging. Technology and techniques for engagement are ever evolving. Stay on top of them to keep connected with your customers.
5. Organize the content of the site with the user in mind. They should be able to quickly find what they are looking for – even if the search terms dont match branding initiative perfectly.
6. Influence the influencers of your target audience. “Be open to sharing, collaborating and building relationships – even with your competitors if necessary – if it means being able to creatively engage the audience.
Quick Fixes
There are some changes that can be made, though, to improve rankings on Google post-Caffeine that can be made relatively easily, according to Irbtrax.
Review the H1 or Header tag. This is important for accurate indexing and search relevancy so avoid using a Header tag that duplicates word for word whats contained in the Title Tag. – Review the Meta Title and Description Tags (MTDT). The Title Tag should contain a businesses most important keywords. Clear, concise, and informative Meta Tags have shown to help improve page ranking and produce better SERP’s.
Analyze and review the most important text on the Home page. Website content must be consistent with your MTDT and relevant to a site’s theme, products or services in order to be accurately indexed.
Analyze and improve page download times – if not for Caffeine then for your smartphone users. More and more searches are now being done by ‘Smart’ phones and this small screen wireless technology presents a unique set of challenges for websites and visitors.