Recent Google Algorithm Changes Impacting SEO in 2018

Google has made a lot of big moves and changes with its search ranking algorithm over the past few years. Below is a quick list of recent hot Google ranking algorithm changes that will impact SEO heavily through 2018. Learn how Google is evolving, and what this all means for your website.

March 26th , 2018 – The Mobile First Initiative: Approximately two years ago, searches on smartphones outpaced desktop traffic. In response, Google launched the mobile-first initiative. This means that Google uses the mobile version of your website to help determine search engine rankings in preference over your desktop version. This includes factors like mobile content, mobile page load speed, SSL and user interaction. If you’re website is not up to today’s mobile site standards, it's most certainly is time for an upgrade.

October 17th , 2017 – The SSL Initiative: Google is very serious about SSL and if your website is not yet SSL, then you absolutely are taking a ranking penalty hit. Google announced that SSL would be a factor about one year ago. It then made a serious push to move the world toward SSL in October 2017 by providing warnings in Chrome for non-secure content. By Spring, 2018, Google began implementing ranking penalties. Later this year, Google’s non-SSL warning on Chrome will get more severe. SSL should be your #1 digital priority for 2018.

January 10th , 2017 – The Interstitial Initiative: People hate pop-ups and Google wants people to be happy with the websites it serves to searchers. For websites that have pop-ups that take over the screen, be it an ad, a coupon, a newsletter signup or other, if your website has a pop-up, you’re making Google unhappy. As alluring as it may be to help increase newsletter subscription or other user actions, its probably not worth it in regard to the search ranking penalty that is imposed against your website.

October 26th , 2015 – RankBrain AI Initiative: While not a “new” update, RankBrain evolves every day. RankBrain is Google’s neural network – learning software that knows what people think about your website. RankBrain understand human behavior. It understands when someone is trying to cheat at SEO and undermine Google, it knows if people don’t like your website for whatever reason, it knows if your website provides the info people are searching for. RankBrain is just one of the 200+ signals that Google evaluates to determine search engine rankings. However, it is weighed very heavily and continues to evolve. You can’t outsmart RankBrain. The only way to make it happy is to have a good quality website that provides functionality and information to your prospects as good or better than your competition. No one wants to shop at a dirty grocery store, just like no one wants to visit an outdated, dysfunctional website.

Summing it all up – ALL of these recent Google changes have a common theme… Serving websites in Google’s search results most likely to provide a quality experience for Google’s users.

*Find additional SEO, PPC and Web Design articles by SharpNET