Are algorithmic updates created solely to
force webmasters to buy ads and increase Google's bottom line?
It's no conspiracy that Google wants to make
profits, but Google's Distinguished Engineer Matt Cutts has come out swinging
against an often repeated "conspiracy theory," arguing that all
Google updates are designed only to improve the user experience.
In a new video, Cutts also addressed the
difference between a data refresh and an algorithm update, and where he
believes SEO professionals are spending too much time and energy.
Algorithm Update vs. Data Refresh
Many webmasters are confusing what is an
algorithm update and what is simply a data refresh.
"When you’re changing your algorithm,
the signals that you’re using and how you weight those signals are fundamentally
changing," he said. "When you are doing just a data refresh then the
way that you run the computer program stays the same, but you might have
different incoming data, you might refresh the data that the algorithm is
using. That’s something that a lot of people just don’t seem to necessarily
get."
Cutts has previously explained the difference between updates and data refreshes on his blog.
Google Conspiracy Theory: More Updates = More Revenue
Cutts also tackled the persistent rumor that
the reason Google does updates like Panda and Penguin isn’t to reduce spam but
is to actually increase revenue. But Matt points out that if you look at Google’s
quarterly statements, Panda actually caused revenue to drop.
I have seen a lot of accusations after Panda
and Penguin that Google is just trying to increase its revenue, and let me just
confront that head on. Panda, if you go back and look at Google’s quarterly
statements, they actually mention that Panda decreased our revenue. So a lot of
people have this conspiracy theory that Google is making these changes to make
more money. And not only do we not think that way in the search quality team,
we’re more than happy to make changes which are better for the long term
loyalty of our users, the user experience, and all that sort of stuff. And if
that’s a short term revenue hit, then that might be okay, right, because people
are going to be coming back to Google long term.
So a lot of people, it’s a regular conspiracy
theory… Google did this ranking change because they want people to buy more ads
and that is certainly not the case with Panda, it’s certainly not the case with
Penguin, and so it’s kind of funny to see that as a meme within the industry,
and it’s just something that I wanted to debunk that misconception. Panda and
Penguin we just went ahead and made those changes and we aren’t going to worry
if we lose money or make money or whatever, we just want to return the best
user’s results we can.
Pay Attention to Marketing & Make Something Compelling
Next, he tackled what he thought was where
SEOs are spending too much time. He thinks people are spending too much time on
links and perhaps not enough time on social media. He also thinks people are
missing out on the user experience they could be working on instead.
A lot of people think about “How do I build
more links?” and they don’t think about the grander, global picture of “How do
I make something compelling, and then how do I make sure that I market it
well?” You know, you get too focused on search engines, and then you, for
example, would entirely miss social media and social media marketing. And
that’s a great way to get out in front of people.
So specifically I would think, just like
Google does, about the user experience of your site. What makes it compelling?
What makes it interesting? What makes it fun? Because if you look at the
history of sites that have done relatively well or businesses that are doing
well now, you can take anywhere from Instagram to Path, even Twitter, there’s a
cool app called YardSale, and what those guys try to do is they make design a
fundamental piece of why their site is advantageous to go to. It’s a great
experience. People enjoy that.
So you could not just pay attention to design
you could pay attention to speed or other parts of the user experience. But if
you really get that sweet spot of something compelling where the design is
really good or the user experience just flows, you’d be amazed how much growth
and traffic and traction you can get as a result.
He also brings up that webmasters should
continue to improve, because if you do not evolve, others will come along,
think about how they could do it better, and then jump in and surprise you.
