A Year of Big Changes
2013 brought major updates to Google's search algorithm, with a strong impact on SEO and on how businesses market themselves online. Here is a summary of the most important ones and what they meant for your business.
January and March: Panda
Two refreshes of the Panda algorithm rolled out in January and March, the first affecting 1.2% of English-language searches. Panda penalises low-quality content and rewards high-quality content with better positions in the search results.
What it means for you: don't use "black hat" techniques or try to trick Google to improve your rankings; your site could be removed from the results altogether. Aim instead to offer original, useful and fresh content, such as helpful articles about your industry, product video reviews and content shared on social media.
May: Penguin 2.0
Google's fourth Penguin update, known as Penguin 2.0, launched on 22 May. According to Google's Matt Cutts, it was designed to detect black-hat web spam more thoroughly, while rewarding sites for quality content.
What it means for you: once again, avoid black-hat techniques. Google keeps favouring original, quality content that helps visitors. The more you update your site with fresh, relevant content that answers customers' questions about your business, products or services, the better your SEO.
September: "Not Provided"
Until September, Google Analytics showed which keywords people searched for before visiting a website. Google then encrypted all organic searches to protect users' privacy, and keyword data was replaced by "not provided". Other key metrics remained available, such as total search traffic and conversions from organic traffic.
What it means for you: losing keyword data makes life harder, but you can still build a successful site with quality content and an engaging experience. Learn what your customers care about and how your products and services solve their problems, and let that guide what you write.
Hummingbird
Announced in mid-September but in use since mid-August, Hummingbird understands a search as a whole question rather than matching individual words. In simple terms, it tries to answer the question, not just match words to pages.
What it means for you: because Hummingbird is better at matching searches with relevant content, businesses no longer need to build their SEO around exact keywords. Think about the questions your visitors have and how your site can answer them, and publish content that serves the reason for their visit.
October: Ad Extensions Now Affect Ad Rank
Ad extensions, the extra information included in a text ad, became a factor in how Google ranks ads in search results. Before this change, only the cost-per-click bid and Quality Score determined Ad Rank, so text ads without extensions now risked lower positions.
What it means for you: using ad extensions can help your ads rank higher and improve your click-through rate, so it is worth adding them to your text ads from now on.
