At the end of February Google announced a raft of updates to their algorithm which affects how search rankings are calculated.
Amongst the 40+ updates was the mention of a link evaluation characteristic being switched off, which has set SEO tongues wagging as to which characteristic that might be. We have been busy researching at WMG following the announcement, analysing how different sites have been affected by the updates and which signal Google could have been talking about.
Findings
What was clear from our analysis was that sites which have link profiles that are heavily weighted with ‘anchor text’ links have suffered since the update, in particular on 17th March when it seems a significant rankings update took place.
Sites with a strong presence of ‘branded’ links in their profile saw very little impact from that change, suggesting that Google may have moved the focus away from anchor text links as a ranking factor.
Whether that is the characteristic Google was talking about remains unknown, but our research suggests that SEO success can no longer be based on aggressive anchor text link building, a more natural approach is required which is based on promoting quality content and good quality link building.
The change is a welcome one to white hat SEO companies who have long been frustrated by spammy, anchor text heavy sites ranking on page 1 for competitive phrases, despite their seemingly underhand approaches.
Based on WMG’s research, this approach will have diminishing effects following Google’s recent update as the algorithm moves away from anchor text links and towards other metrics. If your SEO activity has been based on this kind of approach, then now’s the time to start levelling it out, or you could find yourself on the wrong end of a rankings drop.
We’ll be closely monitoring any further changes in the coming weeks to see how the search results pages continue to be affected by the updated algorithm, which seems to be rewarding sites which have taken a more natural approach to their SEO activity and punishing those who are openly trying to manipulate them.
If you’d like any advice on how you should tailor you link building approach then feel free to get in touch. You can even see how long it will take your website to rank for any key phrase, just add the data to our Keyword Analysis Tool and we’ll tell you how long it will take to hit page 1 of Google!
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