When making changes to your site in terms of search engine optimisation (SEO), it is a good idea to keep an eye on when Google last scanned your site. If you make a change and nothing happens in terms of your positioning, it could simply be that Google hasn't visited your site again since the change and thus doesn't know about the change.
I suggest to people to make a change and then wait for up to a week after they see Google has scanned their page. They can use the date on Google's cached version of their site to determine the date. I suggest a week because you want to make sure that after the site has been cached, the effect of that change has then propagated through Google's servers and out to their regional data stores.
If you find a change has a positive effect then keep the change. If the change has a negative effect reverse the change and see if your positioning returns. After you're back to where you were then continue with another change. Trying one change at a time will educate you as to what changes work and what changes don't. Trying a number of changes at once may mean some have a positive effect and some have a negative effect and you won't be able to figure out which change had what type of effect.
Keep in mind that Google is constantly updating their search engine. Google is supposedly trying to improve the search results for users, which would be true, but in addition they're trying to reduce those who have worked out how to game the system and so don't need to pay for advertising. Over the years there's been many techniques that have come and gone that gave an advantage in the search engine and no doubt there still are some quirks that can be taken advantage of. It is important to retest because what worked last year may no longer work this year. I've seen Google push one of my sites up to number one position then only to push it down and the site is currently at position 31. There were no significant changes on my part that I know of. The only way to know what works and what doesn't work from year to year is to keep testing.
A quick way to check the cached version of your site is to type into Google search the word cache, followed by a colon, then followed by your site. For example this is what I'd type for the JustLocal site.
cache:www.justlocal.com.au
For a long time a search for JustLocal had JustLocal in the first position. For quite a while JustLocal was sitting around the third position. A search for JustLocal now returns www.JustLocal.com.au in the first position. Recently Google did an algorithm update and I also applied a technique I use, but I really can't say whether it was my site getting pushed up, or the other sites getting pushed down. The last time Google scanned www.JustLocal.com.au was on the 29th of October, according to Google's cache. That's handy to know as I've added two new links on the first page of Google to assist my sites in terms of SEO and Google would not have seen those changes yet.
It really is a case of patience is a virtue with Google. In terms of SEO, make a change and then wait and see how the change affects the positioning of your site for the keywords of interest.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for IT support.
I suggest to people to make a change and then wait for up to a week after they see Google has scanned their page. They can use the date on Google's cached version of their site to determine the date. I suggest a week because you want to make sure that after the site has been cached, the effect of that change has then propagated through Google's servers and out to their regional data stores.
If you find a change has a positive effect then keep the change. If the change has a negative effect reverse the change and see if your positioning returns. After you're back to where you were then continue with another change. Trying one change at a time will educate you as to what changes work and what changes don't. Trying a number of changes at once may mean some have a positive effect and some have a negative effect and you won't be able to figure out which change had what type of effect.
Keep in mind that Google is constantly updating their search engine. Google is supposedly trying to improve the search results for users, which would be true, but in addition they're trying to reduce those who have worked out how to game the system and so don't need to pay for advertising. Over the years there's been many techniques that have come and gone that gave an advantage in the search engine and no doubt there still are some quirks that can be taken advantage of. It is important to retest because what worked last year may no longer work this year. I've seen Google push one of my sites up to number one position then only to push it down and the site is currently at position 31. There were no significant changes on my part that I know of. The only way to know what works and what doesn't work from year to year is to keep testing.
A quick way to check the cached version of your site is to type into Google search the word cache, followed by a colon, then followed by your site. For example this is what I'd type for the JustLocal site.
cache:www.justlocal.com.au
For a long time a search for JustLocal had JustLocal in the first position. For quite a while JustLocal was sitting around the third position. A search for JustLocal now returns www.JustLocal.com.au in the first position. Recently Google did an algorithm update and I also applied a technique I use, but I really can't say whether it was my site getting pushed up, or the other sites getting pushed down. The last time Google scanned www.JustLocal.com.au was on the 29th of October, according to Google's cache. That's handy to know as I've added two new links on the first page of Google to assist my sites in terms of SEO and Google would not have seen those changes yet.
It really is a case of patience is a virtue with Google. In terms of SEO, make a change and then wait and see how the change affects the positioning of your site for the keywords of interest.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for IT support.
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