It’s been a few months since the Freshness Update. If you use Google a lot (which you probably do), you’ve likely seen the effects of Freshness. Now, whenever you type in a query that deserves freshness, you’ll see results that were published—in some cases—within minutes.
Obviously, this is great news for searchers. Want to see the results of a ball game that ended 10 minutes ago? Google has what you’re looking for! Want to see who just won a presidential debate? Google knows!
But it’s not only good news for the searchers. No, it’s also fantastic news for SEO’s who are keeping on top of things. With the latest updates, Google’s given SEO’s plenty of options for ranking on page #1.
Many people see the Panda and Freshness updates and only think about the damage that came with them. But Panda and Freshness didn’t just destroy – they also created a plethora of new ways SEO’s can get quality content ranking well.
With Freshness, if you “freshify” your website, you’ll have vastly improved chances at reaching page #1 – even if your site is fairly new.
And in today’s article, we’ll tell you exactly how to do just that.
Consistent Content Publishing
First, let’s get one thing straight: Panda and Freshness are both designed to work together. Google understands that fresh content is key to a website that provides value. People are interested in visiting websites that are constantly updated.
Therefore, Panda now ranks websites based on fresh content, and Freshness ranks websites based on the immediate time-relevancy of the content.
So making sure you’re always creating fresh content is absolutely crucial to post-Panda SEO.
The best way to do this is to set a schedule for yourself. You don’t necessarily need to be posting new content every single day. That is unless your niche relies on daily updated content. But start posting content at least once per week. Really, as long as you can keep the content unique, high quality and relevant, posting as often as possible aren’t going to hurt you.
Google Alerts: Your Own News Robot
Freshness gives us a fantastic opportunity, sure. But how are you supposed to stay on top of everything that’s happening? Well, one fantastic way is to use Google Alerts.
Google Alerts allows you to set up keywords and phrases to monitor. Whenever something is indexed by Google that contains your keywords or phrase, you’ll instantly get an email.
Here at SEOSiteCheckUp.com, besides our own algorithm testing, we have several alerts set up to keep us fully updated on everything that’s going on with Google. Our alerts are designed to catch news on “Google Panda,” “Google Update,” etc.
Whenever something is indexed in Google that matches these phrases, we instantly get an email. Using this technique with your own business ensures you’re always on top of the latest news in your niche.
First Come, First Serve
Lastly, it’s important to remember that with the Freshness update, it’s first-come, first-serve. Therefore, even though setting up Google Alerts and establishing a posting schedule will certainly help you, it won’t always get you to the top of the rankings.
This is because when you use a service like Google Alerts, you’re still getting second-hand news. Sure, you might get it the second it happens, but that means someone else has already published the news, causing your alert to trigger.
The solution? Know your niche, inside and out. Become an industry leader. In some niches, this is easier than others. Be an authority in your niche – someone who is proactive in finding out the latest news. Don’t just wait for it to conveniently land in your inbox.
By optimizing your website for the Freshness algorithm, you give yourself even more opportunities to rank well on Google. Additionally, you meet content guidelines set out by Panda, ensuring that you’ll also be ranking on the search engine positions – not just the “latest news” portion of the results page.
Want More Google Algorithm News?
Here at SEOSiteCheckUp.com, we’re constantly testing Google and scouring the web for the latest SEO news. This is so we can provide you with the most up-to-date news on everything that’s going on with the Big G.
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