How Google's 'Penguin' Update Will Change Publishing, for the Better

How Google's 'Penguin' Update Will Change Publishing, for the Better

Second this :) That's why I actually like Google's updates. It rewards great content. No need to concentrate on nonsensical SEO techniques, like keyword stuffing, or artificial back link building, etc.

I read the article and the comments and I'm wondering if it's really going to be all that great. As someone commented - if the new rating will be based, not on keyword stuffing and empty backlinks, but on reader engagement, then we may get what we find on TV - the trendy reality shows that engage less and less of one's brains. The most read articles and most shared will be celebrity articles. Is that really quality?

Google search is not based on "the most-read and shared articles" per se, Sheri. It's based on the most-read and shared articles in a huge number of categories (topics, keywords, search terms, etc.).

Which means, a celebrity gossip article will never outrank your expert piece on childhood abuse. It won't even show up in the SERPs of your topic.

That's a relief, Achim. Thanks for the reassurance.

User experience also includes speed of access to that content. Optimizing the speed at which a page is presented should also be prioritized. Not only will this place your website above the competition but also lower that miserable statistic - bounce rate.

It is a shame that Wizzley, as a new site, is occasionally unavailable - though this seems to have decreased in recent times.

Keeping on top of availability and load-times is now imperative to find high positions in SERPS.

Content is again king - it is now the technicalities of website creation, the tweaks, that impact most on SERP differentiation.

On that Chaz, last night I got real curious what a PNG file was exactly and found some research that made JPG formats seem bloated... apparently a PNG file loads faster, is lossless, and if non interlaced can give you more bang (higher res image) for your buck (lower overhead size and loading time)... They say if detail isn't important use JPG if you want vibrant but fast loading images PNG is the way to go... tis the little things that make a difference in page load and quality/resolution :)

Funnily enough it is often the ads (Google's especially) that are a drain on load times. Web 2.0 sites often load their ads near the beginning of loading a page. If they loaded them last then much of the page would be available to the viewer before the page loaded fully. This could impact positively on bounce rate.

Look at the speed of load of the main Wizzley page against that of one of Jo's pages (Chitika ads) and then against one of yours. Fortunately, Wizzley seems to have the ads loading last, but there is a significant, if small, difference in load times. We must all be aware that the service we receive with broadband is much better than that received with dial-up, which is still prevalent elsewhere in the world.

Any small tweak can be significant overall.