Google Algorithm Change that Could Be Costly
Last week, Google announced that they had changed their algorithm — again. They say it's to help users, "…find a large number of results from a single site." So, for example, if you search for something from the Smithsonian, you might get a whole page of listings for different pages on the Smithsonian website. This won't happen all the time, but if someone typed in "new exhibits at the Smithsonian," that would trigger the algorithmic response.
What's that mean to you?
Well, if you have a site with tons of pages and people are specifically looking for something on your website, it could be beneficial. Where you used to show one search, you could now be showing multiple searches.
To test this out, I searched for "new exhibits at the Smithsonian" today and seven of 10 results were directly related. But when I type in "new york museum of natural history exhibits" only the first four are for the American Museum of Natural History, and the other listings are for tickets, Wikipedia, and sightseeing. So, I'm guessing it all depends on the search terms you type in and what's available.
Google's spiders are very smart, and they're really focusing more on the searcher's intent than ever before. However, if your site is being beaten out by Wikipedia or another authority site with more clout that yours, some search terms might be overrun with their content.
So, you'll have to be a bit marketer and a bit psychologist when selecting keywords. When considering the competition for each keyword, also assess how many authority listings are on the page when you plug it into Google.
This won't affect every term that people search for, but it's obvious that for some terms, you just won't be able to compete — at least for first page status.
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