With so much speculation over the latest "Florida" update most webmasters and businesses have been left in a very awkward position. Whether to update their websites and re-optimise for the "new" google or to take a chance and leave things as they are and hope that google fixes some of the glitches occurring in the new SERPS. Either way could prove disastrous to the small business depending on search engines for most of their traffic and revenue this time of the year. The following is an attempt to objectively look into the rumours, theories and possible solutions behind this update.

The update

Around the 16th of November there was a major shift in the SERPS being produced by Google. Hundreds of webmasters moaned and groaned as they saw months of work being destroyed. A site that once ranked #1 for a chosen search phrase was now nowhere to be seen. Webmasters spat and cursed Google as they saw potential pre Christmas revenue streams go spidering down the toilet. But how and why did this all happen ?

The rumours

Please note that these are rumours. Some of them may have a hint of truth behind them but only Google knows the reality of the situation. These are here to assist you to make up your own mind on the matter at hand.

Many of these webmasters saw this as a evil campaign by Google to boost their own pre Christmas advertising revenue streams. On the other hand Google must find new long term revenue streams as they are about to brave the choppy equity markets with a flotation. The rumour goes that over the years Google has ammassed a dictionary of commercial search terms through their popular toolbar and Adwords programme. This dictionary of search terms is now being used at a critical time in the business year to force companies to up their ad spend by buying into the popular Adwords programme run by Google. Another rumour stemming from the initial rumour charge Google with the crime of changing its algo to suit its biggest advertisers.

Our theory

Call us boring and "Google Geeks" but we find these rumours highly unlikely. We do not believe that Google has any wish whatsoever to appear as an unethical company, especially shortly before their floatation. The most logical theory is that Google has seen its search engine results manipulated by SEO's for ages now and is trying its hardest to provide the user with objective and helpful search results.

Has Google applied a filter?

After the 16th of November we saw many of our websites dissapear from the SERPS and it appeared to us that Google was applying a filter to their search results. Well the answer to that question is YES they are ! The latest algorithm measures keyword proximity, density and other artificial rank boosting methods to enable Google to apply a filter to your webpages. If you pass with flying colours you shouldn't see any great changes in your ranking. If on the other hand you don't you may just find yourself nowhere to be seen. Now we all need to be grown up here and remember what the web was all about a six or seven of years ago. Yes we are listening .... that's it you've got it ... Spam free objective content and services! In our opinion the major drive here by Google is to provide the user with spam free authoritive content driven websites.

How to bypass the filter

Regardless of whether or not Google will keep using this filter or change back to its old one we thought we should put forth a small list of changes you can apply to your web strategy and bring back that much needed traffic. These will inevitably help you in the long run if not immediately.

1) Reduce keyword density on your webpages. The filter aims to catch highly optimised pages. What Google really wants to see are your keywords spread out through the page.

2) Link farms will become detrimental in the future be careful who you link to and link to on topic web pages. Get rid of all off-topic links on your sites.

3) Build relationships with authority sites in your chosen trade. Get them to link to your site but avoid keyword spamming whilst doing this.

4) Build authority links into your pages.

5) Make a couple of non-commercial sites that reinforce my sales sites.

Our Conclusion

So what do you have to say after all this? Yes we know ... we know .... "my site is perfect" and "I haven't broken any spam rules".

The bottom line is; if you want to make a really great omlette you are going to have to break a couple of eggs in the process. In our opinion Google is only trying new technologies to enhance the users experience. When we see all our hard work going down the drain we get angry but what we need to remember is what truly matters to Google. Google only wants to provide relevant search results to the end user. To the average user that is all that matters. Like the new algorithm or not, but it may actually help Google in the long run. Lets not forget who put us here in the first place and give Google the benefit of the doubt.

Article by Chris Laas (Managing Director of Code Network)