May Day Google Update

The Internet is abuzz over the latest update to Google's search ranking algorithm.

Well, that isn't exactly true. A very small corner of the Internet composed primarily of webmaster and Internet marketers who have enjoyed ranking success in the past by using a variety of means is wringing their hands over a widely publicized Google update. The update to the Google search engine ranking algorithm has been named Mayday by the community both due to its approximate release date and the consequences for some content publishers, "Mayday, mayday!"

What is the Mayday Update anyway, and why do some people care so much?

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While Google makes changes to how it indexes and ranks websites dozens of times each year, occasionally, the cat gets out of the bag, either deliberately via mention by one of Google's unofficial spokespersons on a blog or at some event, or because it is so big of a change that people actually notice it. This update appears to meet both criteria.

The effects of Google's MayDay update are being blamed by some for numerous changes, primarily the lowering of webpage rankings for some websites. These sites enjoyed #1 Google ranking positions for some or all of their pages, but now find themselves ranked lower. In some cases, the ranking is much lower.

Google has said that the MayDay update to its search engine rankings, which is unrelated to the Google Caffeine Update, primarily affected long-tail keyword searches. Since many successful internet marketers and website owners focus on long-tail searches, you can see why so many of them have felt the effect of the Mayday changes.

Basically, what happened was that Google stopped treating long search queries like a bunch of short searches combined together and started treating longer search entries like they do regular searches. That means that where a website might have previously been ranked #1 by Google for the search blue leather dog collars might not rank as highly anymore.

Before the Mayday update such a query may have been processed by ranking webpages based on how they would rank for "blue leather" and for "dog collars". In this case, a website that targeted "blue leather" and "dog collars" would outrank a page that was about all colors of leather dog collars. With the new update, however, the second page gets a much better chance to rank for the top spot because there will no longer be the artificial penalty for not having "blue leather" specifically targeted.

The Mayday update from Google serves one very important lesson. Any method, no matter how successful, used to get higher Google rankings can become ineffective with the flip of a switch. The only way to guarantee long-term search ranking success is to write the best content and gather the most links. Everything else will eventually be filtered out by Google, once they figure out how to do it.