I’ve been blogging recently about the complete disappearance of my site from Google SERPS, for most of my targeted keyphrases. As suspected, there has been a Google algorithm change which seems to be favouring big brand ranking on prime category keywords.

Google has confirmed the “change” to the their algorithm which is giving big brands a helping hand in their SEO efforts. The confirmation and explanation coming via a video from Matt Cutts.

Google aren’t promoting the algorithm tweak as an update, but rather just a change to enhance the value of ‘trust’ factors. As he says in the video:

“Inside of Google, at least inside the search ranking team, we don’t really think about brands. We think about words like ‘trust’ ‘authority’ ‘reputation’ ‘PageRank’ ‘high quality.”

And apparently it’s adjustments to these elements in the ranking process that are the basis of the ranking changes we’ve noted over the past few weeks. However Matt’s quick to assert that the changes are only visible on a relatively small number of queries(!!!!). Matt states, “there’s nothing in the algo change to radically impact your current SEO plans and strategies – just more the same fundamentals.”

Not from what I’ve experienced over the last few weeks Matt – the complete decimation of the last years SEO work, content writing & link building! And now I’m told to continue doing these things that seem to have been slapped down as not good enough, whilst the big brands get a helping hand. Google – on the side of the little guy!!!

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