Over the course of the past few months I have been anticipating this post. I recall that back in March of 2011 many of us internet marketers wondered whether Google’s algorithm update backfired because search results were splayed and scattered about like a hurricane had come through the search results. Many websites suffered the wrath of Google’s campaign to minimize or eliminate content farms with low quality content. Little did we know then that this was all part of a bigger picture that Google was focusing on.
Although backlinks still appear to be one of the primary factors in ranking sites in the search results, it appears that the source of backlinks and authorship play a larger role in the weight of backlinks and how Google applies this data to any given site ranking. The biggest change that I have notices is time.
I remember the days of optimizing a website to rank for a keyword or phrase, and I could implement a couple of changes with results showing up in days. Some times it would take longer to see the results, but back then 3-4 days was typical. It was rather nice, actually, because you new whether something was working to your benefit or detriment, and you could quickly make changes if necessary. SEO’s and Internet marketers don’t enjoy that privilege any longer as results can now take up to several weeks or even a month. It appears as though site filtering has been implemented, as well as the quality of the content that a given website author publishes.
As many of us know, local search results have been plentiful as Google has made attempts to provide users with results that serve them based upon geographical location. The introduction of Google +1 has been paving the way to yet another highly relevant factor, and Yesterday Google pretty much let the cat out of the bag as to their sole intent of how search is going to be from this point forward. With their release of “Search, plus Your World,” Google is clearly indicating their intent of local based search, not only geographically speaking, but in the sense of our personal circle of friends and online sources that we frequent daily.
Can Google Eliminate the Backlink Ranking Factor from Search Results?
I do believe Google may have found their way around the SEO cheats in cyberspace without taking backlinks out of the equation, but I certainly wouldn’t lay hold to the idea that high page rank backlinks will always be the medium of search results ranking. As a matter of fact I’m going to predict that 2012 is going to be the year that search results ranking based upon high page rank backlinks will have little or no value as personal and local results slowly consume the results we see. I may be wrong, but the days of purchasing high page rank backlinks to boost a website up in the search results are coming to a close, and soon we will all be competing on a level playing field when it comes to ranking websites.