When SEOs look back on 2014, I think it will be seen as the year when search has become more refined. That is not at all a bad thing when you consider what previous years are remembered for.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane…
2013 was the year keyword data got taken away from us and has become ‘not provided’, 2012 was the year Penguin launched, 2011 was the year Panda launched, and so on.
Ask anyone who does SEO for a living and they’ll tell you their professional life was changed by these updates, some for the better and some for the worse.
In 2014 there weren’t exactly any life-changing updates, but that doesn’t mean nothing important happened either.
To me, 2014 feels like a year when search matured. Google had already conquered things like spammy links and low quality content, so they focused on secure web browsing and whether or not Authorship was worth continuing.
There were also some important updates to local and mobile search, while Google confirmed once and for all that a once-important tool would no longer be updated.
For full details on the important search updates of 2014, please read on.
Google Gives Ranking Boost To Secure Sites
In an effort to make the web a safer place, Google announced in August that they would be giving a slight boost in rankings to sites that are securely encrypted with an SSL certificate.
While it was said to be a “lightweight” update at the time, that didn’t stop many SEO professionals from encrypting their own sites and the sites of their clients.
Over time Google may decide to make this a stronger ranking signal, so the long term effects of this update are still unknown. But for Google to outright say they’re giving a rankings boost to a particular signal makes this one of the most significant updates of the year.
Google Updates Its Local Search Algorithm
In July, Google released a new algorithm aimed to provide more accurate and relevant local search results by tying them more closely to web search ranking signals.
You may know this update as the “Pigeon” update. Unlike Panda and Penguin, Pigeon is not an official codename. It was a name coined by Search Engine Land that just kind of stuck.
One of the most significant changes with this update is the boost in rankings given to local directory sites, like Yellow Pages. Oftentimes these local directories outrank the actual websites of local businesses.
As they say, if you can’t beat ‘em you might as well join ‘em. Rather than trying to outrank these directories, get yourself listed on them. Do a search for terms related to your industry and see which local directories populate the front page, then make it a priority to get a listing on them.
Google Confirms ToolBar PageRank Will No Longer Be Updated
If you have been in the SEO game for a while, you know how important PageRank used to be. It was essentially a grade from 0 to 10 on how authoritative your site is. A high PageRank would almost always guarantee a good ranking.
Over time the value of PageRank as a ranking signal went down, and Google didn’t refresh it as frequently. When almost a year went by without a single PageRank update, questions began to circulate as to whether it would ever be updated again.
In October, Google’s John Mueller confirmed that PageRank will no longer be updated. While this wasn’t an earth shattering announcement, since SEOs had largely stopped relying on PageRank at that point, it was still significant because it marked the end of something that used to be tremendously important.
So how do you gauge the authority of a site without PageRank? There are still plenty of ways:
- Ahrefs is a great tool for seeing how many backlinks are pointing to a site and how valuable those links are.
- Moz still has its Domain Authority and Page Authority ratings.
- SEMRush will tell you how much traffic a site is getting from top 20 Google results, and how many keywords it ranks for.
The list can go on, but those are some of my favorites.
Google Pulls The Plug On Authorship
In August, Google announced it had effectively pulled the plug on its Authorship project by deciding to no longer show information about individual authors in search results. This is a change that happened gradually throughout the year.
First Google decided to only show author pictures for those who were considered truly influential authors, rather than showing it for every site that was marked up with the Authorship code.
Then Google decided to remove pictures altogether and only show the author’s name. Then finally Google removed all trace of author information in the search results.
Their reasoning was that it didn’t have a dramatic effect on click-through rate and was not helping searchers find more authoritative content. That can be argued for sure, but I’m just relating what Google said.
Many SEOs still believe Google is tracking author information, even if it’s not being displayed publicly, and may end up doing something with it in the future. If your site is still marked up with authorship code, might as well keep it there just in case.
Google Emphasizes Mobile-Friendly Sites In Search Results
This is a fresh update that’s hot off the presses, with Google just announcing it in the past few days. Google has released a set of criteria for what it considers to be a mobile-friendly site, and sites that pass this criteria will get a “mobile-friendly” label in mobile search results.
Here’s how Google will be judging the mobile-friendliness of a site if it:
- Avoids software that is not common on mobile devices, like Flash
- Uses text that is readable without zooming
- Sizes content to the screen so users don’t have to scroll horizontally or zoom
- Places links far enough apart so that the correct one can be easily tapped
In addition, Google has said they may choose to use this criteria when ranking mobile search results in the future, so it’s a good idea to get your site in compliance.
Your Turn
You’ve heard what I think, now I want to hear what you think. What were the most significant SEO updates for you this year? I’d love to hear what you think in the comments section.
