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As you may have noticed, there has been an effect on listings following Google’s major changes to its algorithm following the 50 tweaks it made through March 2012. It is never easy to predict what effect these changes will have until they happened, as each year, Google changes its search algorithm up to 500-600 times!! While most of these changes are minor, every few months Google rolls out a “major” algorithmic update that affects search results in significant ways.

The official statement on the Google Blog states: “Many of the changes we make are so subtle that very few people notice them. But in the last day or so we launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking—a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries.” Everything Google has been doing to date has gone towards providing greater relevance in the search results; fewer spam websites and more content of the type which Google considers to be valuable to the end user.

To achieve this, search engines have been using cues from the social web as well as around 200 metrics which go into ranking a web page. Some of the issues we are picking up on with the changes are intense focus on things such as:

• Good quality, original content on your website
• Links from questionable sources Socialise website content
• Build network of followers around your business More natural use of keyword e.g. no unnecessary over use of keyword
• Phrase links Use/include bullet points were possible
• Use/include imagery were possible So here at Xyone we feel the most interesting developments, or at least the changes that will spark the most speculation, are related to how Google handles anchor text and is expecting brands to engage with its audience socially.

Google indicated that it “tweaked” how it handles anchor text, improving the systems it uses to interpret and use anchor text to determine how relevant a given anchor might be for a given query and website. If there’s two changes from the list of 50 to watch and perhaps even test, Xyone is focusing on a healthy mix of anchor text and a social engagement strategy exploiting Google+ and the other major social environments.