One of the ways you can become an SEO expert is to learn all about Google’s secret algorithm. Its algorithm dictates everything that happens in Google’s search result. The algorithm is the key that can unlock insane amounts of wealth, but it can also be the penalty that can ruin your online business.
It sounds like a crazy task to try to understand the algorithm, but there are ways. After years of learning, teaching, and watching SEO in action on thousands of different websites, I have developed a process for predicting Google’s algorithm changes.
And no, I don’t have all the answers. I’m not pretending to have some prophetic insight into Google’s next move, and this isn’t some scammy tell-all about the latest algorithmic loophole.
This is a practical how-to guide that equips you with knowledge that will help you make a good guess at how the algorithm is going to change over time.
Discover the known facts about the algorithm
In order to understand how the algorithm will change in the future, you first need to understand what it looks like right now.Right, I know. It’s a secret. “A business secret,” in the words of Eric Schmidt, Google’s former CEO.
But not everything is a secret. Google provides its own snapshot of how the algorithm works.
As marketers and SEOs, we’ve been interacting with the algorithm for so long that we have developed a good understanding of how the algorithm behaves.
First, know how the search engine works. This is the basic idea:
- You Google something.
- Google algorithm does its thing.
- You get a result on a search engine results page (SERP).
To get a quick brush-up on how Google works, check out my animated infographic.
Second, know what an algorithm is. A search engine algorithm is
essentially a list of rules that tells Google what to give back to you
when you type in a query.The algorithm pulls from the vast library of indexed content on the Internet and filters this content through the rules in order to give you the best results. (Note: Google’s algorithm and Google’s web crawling are two separate things.)
A simple way to understand it is to think about the algorithm as a series of questions. Google decides what to show you by asking over 200 questions about your query.
Those 200+ questions are the algorithm.
Third, know a little bit of algorithm functionality. You don’t have to become a code wizard to learn a little bit about the algorithm’s functionality.
The algorithm has parameters that analyze and deliver results based on two broad principles:
- Relevancy – the way that the indexed content on a web page matches the specific query (keywords, title, headline, metatags, etc.)
- Offsite factors – the factors that affect that web page but are not actually part of the web page’s content (link backs, click-through rates, site speed, etc.)
Learn the trends that affect your specific website, keywords, and niche
More important than trying to master the algorithm as a whole is to determine how the algorithm affects your site specifically.While knowing Google’s secret sauce sounds all gnostic and appealing, it’s really pretty useless unless you know how to apply it. The best way to apply it is to implement what you already know on your own website and then see what happens.
Here is my advice for doing this:
- Put best SEO practices into place – you know a thing or two about SEO already even if you’re not a whiz. Good enough. Go and do what you know, and see what happens. Continually educate yourself on best SEO practices, and try to improve as much as you can.
- Keep records – keep a simple journal of what you’re doing on your website. This could be as easy as noting what you did and when in an Evernote list or a Google Drive doc. For example: “April 17 – added three internal links to the top five popular blog articles.”
- Watch your metrics – next, keep an eye on how your traffic and rankings are doing. You’re probably doing this already. Perhaps, you use Moz or some other reporting tool. At the most basic level, check Google Analytics to gain insight into your traffic, organic search, and other critical data.
Use this knowledge to grow in your mastery of how the algorithm affects your niche. This is where the money is.
As you understand how the algorithm affects your niche, you will have the valuable micro-knowledge that will allow you to anticipate future algorithm changes and to make necessary adjustments on your site for optimal search results.
Keep up with the algorithm changes
Google is always changing the algorithm in minor and subtle ways.It’s important to know when that happens and what changes Google makes. Why? Because the changes that Google makes in the algorithm can affect hundreds of millions of websites, probably even yours.
- Remember Panda?
- Remember Penguin?
- Remember Hummingbird?
When you understand how the algorithm changes, you begin to see how the algorithm will change in the future. That allows you to make predictive conjectures about what’s going to happen.
The best record of algorithm changes comes from Moz.com and its “Google Algorithm Change History.”
Keep a pulse on this page, and you’ll be able to keep up with all the significant known algorithm changes.
By doing so, you will become adept at knowing what’s coming next.
Read the Webmaster Guidelines
Nobody, apart from the elite group of engineers and developers in Mountain View, knows the algorithm. And that’s okay. Few of us would be able to actually understand it if we did see it. For example, does this mean much to you?
It’s a portion of the forward index of the Google prototype, developed by Sergey Brin and Larry Page, when they were cooking up Google at Stanford.
Although the above chart, a glimpse into the algorithm, is not extremely informative, Google has a written record of the practical applications of this algorithm.
It’s called the Webmaster Guidelines.
If the algorithm were available for public viewing, would it matter? We would still have to codify the “rules,” as it were, for complying with algorithmic parameters. We would still not be able to sneak by algorithmic restrictions.
One way, then, to predict algorithmic change is to know the algorithmic rules as they stand. Those rules are provided for you.
Read the Webmaster Guidelines from Google.
Know the trends
When you do everything I’ve outlined in the four steps above, you begin to get a more accurate sense of what Google is doing, where it’s going, how it’s playing, and what it’s going to do next.Basically, you’re getting to the point where you can predict Google’s algorithm changes. You have an accurate idea of the trends.
Here are some of the trends I’ve observed:
A focus on users and on content for readers
Google wants to become a search engine that is focused upon users. Each algorithmic change improves user experience and provides more user-friendly results and reader-friendly content.Based on this trend, I have become a evangelist for the production and promotion of high-quality content marketing.
The expansion of co-citation and co-occurrence
There has been talk in the search community about the decline of anchor text in favor of something called co-citation and co-occurrence.Basically, this means that “linking” and the resultant ranking change won’t happen through links and anchor text. They will happen through plain text mentions.
This trend coheres with the trend above — the focus on users and high-quality content. Right now, SEOs and webmasters must maintain a slavish adherence to proper anchor formatting and rules. In the future, this will probably decline.
The proliferation of natural search
When Hummingbird happened, I saw the first major rollout of one of my own Google algorithm predictions — the naturalization, or humanization, of search.People aren’t using boolean signals or algorithm-focused searches. People are instead doing things like asking their smartphones questions.
Search is less about “queries” and more about “questions.”
It’s more typical now to search for
how should I optimize my robots txt?than it is to search for
robots.txt optimization seoPeople search using natural queries. They ask the search engine a question as they would ask a person a question.
The algorithm is changing and has changed to accommodate this style of search.
Constant attack on spam
If there is one thing we know for absolute certain about Google’s algorithm, it’s this: it hates spam. With a passion.I, too, hate spam, so I like this trend. It’s Google’s way of eliminating crap from the search results and rewarding those who do it right.
Unfortunately, there have been innocent victims whose sites have been penalized or destroyed by such sweeping changes. For a long time, site owners have done what they thought were “best SEO practices” only to discover that Google now considers those “best practices” to be spam signals.
There’s an interesting way to learn about Google’s spam removal. You can see recent penalizations and de-indexing that Google is doling out.
Go to How Search Works. Then, scroll down to “Fighting Spam.”
Spam is always in Google’s crosshairs. By understanding its definition of spam, you can expand on your own intuitive sense of what constitutes “spam” and take measures to avoid it. Chances are the algorithm will adapt to filter more of it out of SERPs.
Conclusion
The whole point of predicting Google’s algorithm changes is to make your site better. You don’t want to be just an algorithm foreteller. You want to actually make moves that improve your site.When you have this predictive knowledge, you’re better able to play both a defensive and offensive web marketing game.
What are your predictions about Google’s algorithm changes?