There have been much noise since the updates by Google in an attempt to eliminate website that uses "spammy" link building method in an effort to rank their site well. I know i am late in writing this but I have been quite inactive lately due to my persue of other interest in life. Still I wish to state my thoughts on all the chatter going on online.
Did Google do a good job?
Well the initial result was quite bad honestly. But Google is fine tuning their algorithm and you can see improvements in the search results now. Till date you can still see lousy result. For example, a search for locksmith and locksmith Singapore shows a cake shop result on the first page of Google search! Just how can a locksmith be linked to a cake shop??? (see picture below). The picture was taken in October, which really is a few months since the update has been done. But to be fair to Google, the listing is on Google places and someone did tag that account under the locksmith category but still I find it a erroneous result.
What does the update mean?
Basically, for us webmasters, the changes have forced us to work harder on the actual website than the link building portion of SEO. The best way i can sum it all up is GIVE WHAT THE USERS WANT TO SEE!
While link building is still important, I do believe that the importance have been dropped by quite a bit. Why do I say so?
If we are to take the top position for some industry, for example: locksmith again. You will realize that beside Wikipedia, most website on the first page have 0 – little link building done. In fact those that did do link building are probably found in the middle of the page.
While link building is still important, I do believe that the importance have been dropped by quite a bit. Why do I say so?
If we are to take the top position for some industry, for example: locksmith again. You will realize that beside Wikipedia, most website on the first page have 0 – little link building done. In fact those that did do link building are probably found in the middle of the page.
Also since the market in Singapore is smaller ie: Google earns lesser from us (lower population lower clicks) than compared to markets in Australia and United States etc. The fine tuning done on the result for Google.com.sg is really low.
Take Google places for instance. Google places makes more sense in the larger country divided by states and areas but in Singapore? Well it does help if say you are looking for a clinic in Ang mo kio but say if you are again looking for a locksmith or a interior designer
Conclusion
Honestly we are lucky since we have been preaching to our clients the importance of good and proper onsite SEO. All we really wish for is a good search engine that knows how to give us back quality result as a user.