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Google Mayday; has google's algorithm changed?
Of late online forums for webmasters all around the world have been buzzing with the sound of Google – Even more than usual! Why? You might well ask. Google introduced new algorithms for website rankings which consequently hit some of the biggest sites on the net right where it hurts most: Traffic.
The update happened on May 1st which led to the ‘event’ becoming known as Mayday. While you might be painfully aware that the bottom has fallen out of the traffic being delivered from Google recently, you might not understand why that is - In which case it is definitely in your interest to read on...
What Happened?
The fundamental answer to this is Google changed their algorithms. The real question is what did they change? The new algorithms changed the way Google handles what are known as ‘long-tail keywords’: They are phrases of three of more words.
Anonymity
Since Mayday many webmasters have witnessed a massive reduction in traffic – Some up to 90%. With the change came anonymity: None of the long-tail keywords that once brought them traffic can now be recognised by Google.
Who Did It Affect?
Mayday has affected some of the most well established sites on the net: Even a site that has been online for thirteen years; has around four hundred thousand backlinks and a previous Page Rank of 7, lost traffic.
Why Did Google Change?
Mayday was not some kind of penalty from Google. They changed the algorithms in an attempt to index long-tail key phrases more accurately. It takes a LOT of memory and computing power to identify keyword phrases – As explained by a webmaster during forum discussions:
"On the assumption that any five words could constitute a phrase, and that a large corpus would have at least 200,000 unique terms, there would be approximately 3.2.times.10.sup.26 possible phrases. Clearly more than any existing system could store or otherwise programmatically manipulate."
No More Guess Work
Before Mayday, Google simply made an ‘educated guess’ with regards to ranking pages for long-tail key phrases. Now, according to the new patent Google is able to compute and so index pages with long-tail key phrases more accurately: So no more guess work.
Where Does That Leave You?
If you have noticed a recent decline in traffic from Google changes probably need to be made to your site’s pages: And if you want to stay ahead, the sooner the better.
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