It is a no-brainer that alterations on your webpages impact the ranking of your site in search engine results. However, it is not very clear how the search engines respond to the changes on your website and what precisely leads to the changes in the search engine results. A recent search engine patent may have some answers.
Many search engine patents deal with the changes on your site
Google printed a patent that tells how the modifications on your web pages impact the rankings of your website 6 years ago. Microsoft was granted another patent last month, that talks about the impact of web page modifications on the search engine rankings.
This new patent discloses the elements on your web pages might be checked by search engines.
As per the new patent, modifications of the following web page elements can impact the location of the page in the search engine results:
- Keywords included in a web page.
- Keywords associated with a webpage
- The anchor texts used in links on the web page.
- The colour and size of images on the web page.
- The position of the images or texts on the web page.
- The occurrence of the document change with time.
- The amount of the web page content changed.
- Tags assigned to the page.
- Search queries used to locate the page.
As per the patent, the searches are categorized into the 2 categories “navigational”and “informational”. The consequence of the web page changes are dependent on the category of a search enquiry.
A navigational enquiry is a query that is utilized to discover a specific website. For instance, a search conducted for “NY times” will take you to the home page of the sites. Examples for information enquiries are “who won the 2011 XYZ awards”? or “how do I repair a wrecked bicycle tire”?
If the viewer is searching for information about a latest event ( say 2011 XYZ awards) then pages that lately introduced the keyword could be heightened in the search results.
For navigational queries, webpages with static content might get a boost. This technique works good with some kind of websites but it could lead to problems with home pages that revise their content regularly.
What does this signify to your website?
Search engines do not just glance at the existing version of your website. They also memorize how it was in the past. The modifications on your site could point to a transfer of ownership, they could point to that you should keep your website updated, they could be a sign for spam and more.
When you alter your web pages, judge which signal you might be giving out to search engines.
You need to make sure all elements are relevant and specific to your sites theme or the individual webpage’s topic, to ensure longlasting SEO success. You need to make sure that updates to your site, particularly large updates or redesigns, are managed effectively, with redirects.
