So Google did an update called Mayday. Although this was a small update, it had a profound impact on millions of websites around the globe. Some webmasters have claimed to have lost between 5-15% of long-tail traffic with some reporting more.
So what was this update all about? From the various threads taking place at the usual internet marketing forums such as Webmaster World, Warrior Forum and Digital Point, it seems like this update was focused on ‘long tail’ keywords.
It seems as though Google now have a more efficient way of indexing longer phrased keywords as opposed to before and with the recent rollout of Caffeine, it seems like a double whammy. Even though this is one of hundreds of updates the company claims to implement each year, this is one that has caused a great deal of upset in the internet marketing community.
It seems as though ‘exact match’ domains no longer have the weight they once did with regards to rankings and as a result, we see more authority sites back on the first SERPS (search engine results pages).
It also appears that sites less than 6 months old have also suffered the most although there are plenty of webmasters with sites that are older claim to have also lost a great deal of traffic. Now for those that have sites based around the XFactor or Sniper method seemed to have really taken a nosedive.
Some people actually saw an increase in traffic and rise in AdSense and affiliate earnings. the feedback seems to be that more emphasis should be given to the content on your site. Ensure that all content is written in a natural way and not for the search engines.
Matt Cutts from Google has said that this is a change that is here to stay so for those of you hard hit, it may be worth re-evaluating your sites and seeing where you can make some improvements on quality to see how you can obtain your rankings back. your content and interlinking strategy may be the first port of call, then maybe you want to look at your backlinking too.
It seems like the old saying of ‘content is king’ is even more important than ever.