Google’s freshness update is the latest tweak in the search engine’s ever-increasing intelligent algorithm. This update’s goal is to bring internet users recent, date-based, timely content.
Do you remember the Panda update? Panda focused on quality; driving the need for well optimized, relevant content to websites. The freshness update now brings the newest content to Google’s SERP (search engine rankings page).
What Does That Mean For Your Internet Marketing Strategy?
When performing searches, readers want the latest information on any given topic. Television shows, sporting events and news will typically appear with a date stamp. We know with certainty that if your company has a blog, the content should be updated frequently with current information, trends and products in your industry.
However, Google does give preference to news items that are:
- +1’d on Google+
- Marketed on social media sites
- On sites with updated RSS feeds and XML sitemaps
- An authority in its respective field
Become an Authority: Maximize Potential with the Google Freshness Update
Websites gain an edge when they’re recognized as an authority; doing this by updating frequently, receiving user comments, and attracting a popular following i.e. being highly trafficked. Even if a business does not yet have a blog, this shouldn’t be discouraging. Google crawls content very frequently and starting a blog, connecting it with Google+ and Feedburner, and sharing it will achieve results quicker than you might think. The more the business posts, the faster Google will know to revisit the site, to crawl for new content. It’s a self-propelling cycle that only gets easier with more updates.
Becoming an authority also involves being active in your industry’s community. To get noticed, comment on other blogs and even try guest blogging. When readers click on your user name or byline they’ll be directed back to your blog or website.
Extra Fresh Tips to Make the Most of Google Freshness
To keep it extra fresh:
- Make sure to date all of your news items and blog posts
- Have press releases written and submitted as soon as you release a new product or service or discover breaking industry news
- Have press releases and articles linked to new web pages that have been created to advertise these products and services (not the home page, it’s not nearly as fresh)
With the presence of Panda and the Freshness update, businesses should focus their efforts on creating quality content that’s posted regularly, whether it’s on the site, through articles, blogs or press releases.
What About Link Building?
With the existence of informative, authoritative content, most link building will occur organically. This doesn’t completely rule out creative backlinking techniques, but fresh content, paired with social sharing and a modern off-page strategy is now becoming the best approach to search engine marketing. Inevitably other users from around the web will link your content to their blogs and pages and there are certainly things you can do to foster this. With the Freshness update Google now serves up newer more relevant content to its users and provides businesses with new ways of getting noticed and attracting customers.
