Google constantly changes aspects of its search engine algorithms. The changes sometimes come in the form of more major changes with names. Two of the recent changes include Panda, which is an algorithm filter aimed at fighting low quality content, and Penguin, which is aimed at fighting web spam. These changes have caused chaos for web marketers who find previously successful web sites falling from top ranking places on Google.
The newest change or tweak is aimed at exact URLs. To date, URLs that match the search term have been a major benefit. For example a web site URL containing the search term would have improved ranking in search results. In fact, one might reasonably expect that somebody searching for Furniture might find what they were looking for on a website named Furniture.com.
The latest change to Google’s algorithm is designed to reduce results that include spam sites, by penalizing pages with the seemingly correct URL, but which lack real substance. In theory, this is really good. The risk: will the tweak cost legitimate sites their rankings?
If a site has quality, relevant information and uses white hat search optimization, there should not be negative effects. For example, a site with the URL FulfillmentCenters.com should come up when searching for a fulfillment center if the web site has quality content and merit. It is what we would all hope for.
Over the next few weeks we will be watching closely to be sure the new algorithm works more than just in theory. That it works in practice. If you have a web site with a domain name close to the search term, be sure to watch your Google rankings for change. If your search results ranking starts to fall, react. You may need to up the quality of your site and employ more best practices. Your business may depend on those search results.