16 Jun Google Phantom Update
Did you see that?
Noticed a wobble in your rankings? It may have something to new with Google’s rumored “phantom” update, which was rolled out with little publicity and hardly an acknowledgment. After some prying, Google reluctantly confirmed the changes, but did not provide much information regarding the update.
The new update is suspected to be a quality update. How ‘quality’ is determined is still somewhat of a mystery, but as long as your site has relevant, high-quality content, you can continue to rank well for your search terms and drive traffic to your site. Phantom comes on the heels of the Panda update, which goes into detail as to how sites are given preference.
Google is known to regularly update its search algorithm to serve better quality content to its searchers, so this is nothing new. If you have been consistently developing quality content and creating value for your audience, then keep going. If however, your search engine traffic slows, you may need to address your on-page SEO.
Although we do not have the specifics of the update, we do know what Google has specified previously.
Publish New Content
If “content is king”, then regular, high-value content is what keeps him in power. Having quality content is the crux of Google’s advice on effective SEO. If you are all caught-up from the Google update on April 21, then your main focus should be on creating and maintaining quality content. “Low quality” content, whether it be throughout your website, or only on select pages, will trigger Google Panda’s quality control filters, which will make it more difficult to maintain page rankings. This, in turn, will decrease organic traffic, and may result in domain-level demotion, because it would just be specific to your low-quality content.
To be safe, there are things that you can use to assess your content.
- Avoid “thin” content
- Duplicate content can be penalized
- Is your content trustworthy?
- Does your target audience benefit from visiting your site?
- Achieve excellent user experience.
Building Trust
Some sites can have their new content indexed and ranked within minutes of its creation. This is a reflection about how much authority or trust a site is given. When Google search “trusts” your site, then you are well-positioned to receive lots of organic traffic.
Continuously improving the quality of your content is currently the best SEO practice. Developing a solid reputation with Google is a profitable long-term strategy that once established, can bring consistent results to your website over time. Google want to see original, trustworthy, error-free, visitor-centric, value-adding, comprehensive, substantial content.
Becoming an authority on Google takes time, but the payout is enormous. Focus on creating compelling content and helping your audience solve their problems, and you will do well.
In Closing
You can always check to see your website’s status on Google by referencing the Google Penalty Checker. Google rolls out hundreds of changes every year, some are major, and some are secretive, but they all have impact on how your site is ranked.
We can expect that Google will continue to demote sites that have poor content, so if your low quality content is being affected, it’s time to revisit your strategy.