Content creators and web designers these days are faced with a number of contradictory goals and directions. On the one hand, only a few years ago the main concerns for excellent presence on the web were numerous, tenuous and oddly interchangeable.
Google is by far the largest Internet force, with a search engine that the vast majority use by far the most often, and a browser that is not far behind in terms of numbers. In being so big, their reach is nearly as infinite as the Internet, and their 2012 algorithm change came with implications that continue to trickle down.
It was, for a while in the recent past, that a quick and newly coded interface, perfectly presented keywords, elegant seo and several other additional aspects could begin the search engine recognition momentum. Then, it would require the wit and guile of the site owner to continue the process forward.
In some cases, this would result in deception on the part of the site owner…those who had figured out the necessary elements to check all of the above Google boxes.
The 2012 algorithm change was meant to bring things back full circle. Which it did.
Searching
Small business owners are back to the basics these days. It is quality, not trickery, that will get attention these days. Content is the most important element of your website.
Your content is the what is browsed by the searching robots, and searching comes in several different forms…six, to be exact. People can find you by typing in your url, or though a PPC campaign. Maybe they heard about you on social media. And then there’s the search.
Most often, people search to find what they need on the Internet. If your website is “found” by a search, and clicked upon, then you have been found organically.
Keyword Encryption
That phrase, the one that found you and your website, is comprised of what are called organic keywords. And if you have an idea of what those words are, to perform well in searches it’s only a matter of including that keyword phase in your content.
That sort of information was once available to site owners, however, as of September, 2013, Google switched all searches over to ‘encrypted searches’ using HTTPS. What that means is that no more keyword data will be passed to site owners. Encrypted Google searches do not pass the keyword data through to websites, thereby eliminating the ability to track users by their keyword searches.
The biggest impact for many site owners has been not being able to fully segment users by keywords within their web analytics software.
When Google first initiated the encryptions change, it was for Google users only, and seemed to just add security. Their initial projection was that the change would only affect percentages of searches in the single digits. Now site owners are seeing consistently from 80 to 95 per cent of their search hits being classified as “Not Provided”.
Whether we like it or not, Google’s encrypted search is here to stay. Complaining to Google about how unfair it is won’t make them change their stance because it was a security decision. Now that Google has made the change to secure search, we can pretty much expect other search engines to follow suit.
