Search engine giant Google announced that they will be rolling out a new algorithm designed to reward those with relevant content written with the reader in mind and in turn penalize those that write just for the search engines to find their site.

This is another step in the direction Google is trying to take in order to make sure that consumers find the information on a website useful and relevant, and that the information is not just a list of popular keywords.

While the new algorithm has not been implemented yet, it will be within the next few weeks. Here is what you will need to know to prepare for yet another change.

Why the Update?

Announced by the head of Google’s search spam team at the SXSW panel last week, the new algorithm is said to be a way for “mom and pop” websites to have an even standing if their content is relevant but not professionally optimized. This update will reward sites with relevant content throughout and punish those that spent a lot of money and time optimizing the homepage to make it saturated with keywords. Sites with too many links exchanged will also be penalized as this will be seen as a manipulation to gain better placement instead of a concentration on good content.

What Does the new Update Mean for Marketers?

If the content in your website is topic driven rather than keyword driven, this update will not harm you. This is another way for Google to move towards recognizing content written for consumers rather than search engines like they’ve been trying to do for a while.

The update will not punish people who write the content so the consumer first then edit it to make sure it contains keywords that search engines pick up on. If this is the way you already approach writing content, you should not have anything to worry about and may even benefit from the changes.

So what are some ways to make sure Google will smile upon your site? According to Cuts’, you should “make a site that is relevant to people’s interests”. Write about things that your consumers will find useful and things that are necessary for them to know first, then go back in and optimize for the search engines.

A good indication of whether or not your content is relevant and interesting is to monitor social sharing. If your content or posts are being shared through out social media sites, then you know you are doing a good job. If they are not, you should take a step back and try to find out why. Take a look at information that is being shared and try to learn something from it.

Cutter did clarify in the end that they won’t punish people who have been doing everything they were recommended to do to gain placement such as optimizing pages with keywords. This will solely be to give smaller sites with great content a fighting chance and keep the people abusing keywords in check; mainly those sites that wouldn’t be legible to a human that doesn’t crawl through looking at just phrases or links like the search engine spiders do.

In the end, it looks like the updates won’t affect things much. Google is just working to implement the suggestions they’ve put forth in the past: write content first for consumers to make sure they understand your message and learn something from it, and then make your content easy for search engines to crawl through and find all of the good content you’ve written.

Follow 220 Marketing for Daily Market Updates