Why did Google run such a big ranking algorithm update?

Google’s founders are not satisfied with the quality of Google’s search results. In a new book, Google founder Larry Page told the author what he thinks about the results:

“Well, Larry Page, one of the co-founders of Google, is not very satisfied with the results of Google searches.

On a scale of 1 to 10, he thinks that Google delivers about a 3. They want to do everything they can to improve the quality of search.”

Given that statement, we can expect quite a lot of Jagger style ranking algorithm updates in the future. It looks like Google is heading more towards authoritative content and sites that appear as authorities in their industry.

Your website should be concentrating on 3 things to ensure long term Search Engine Rankings.

1. Site structure: The way it is structured should be easy for search engines to read, determine what you are, and find keywords.
2. Links: Continue to build links. Try to build one-way, non-reciprocal back links if possible. Industry related websites are better.
3. Content: Google is favoring sites that have a lot of content, and the content has to be very relevant to your industry. They are starting to lean towards ontology. If your site is about parachutes, then Google will also look for words like, plane, jump, sky, jump safety, jump companies, hangliding, para-sailing, skydiving, etc.

The days of tricks and hacks are over, but many will still try to fool Google to achieve higher rankings. Google will always be updating it’s search results to provide the most relevant results.