If you have ever wondered why it is so difficult to obtain and maintain a high position on Google - consider this.

Matt Cutts a Google Associate and ex-google software engineer recently announced on one of his many SEO tours that Google were making adjustments to their search engine algorithms to give preference to faster loading sites.

In itself that is particularly unremarkable, the sign of good site is that it should be fast enough to load to maintain interest and at Cohere it has always a priority consideration. What was unusual was the resulting panic where many 'optimised' site owners then went back to their SEO marketing companies to conduct site speed reviews to ensure that their positioning was secure.

The issue is not so much that the faster the site the higher position that many had assumed would be the case, but that the slow loading sites would be marginally penalised in favour of quicker sites that were just as relevant in terms of content. The real point being that content should always be the driving force.

Google make it a point that the search engine positioning should be about the usefulness of the site in relation to the search term entered, not just about clever optimisation tricks. It is precisely for this reason that Google and the other major search engines like Bing and Yahoo constantly review their search engine positioning methods so that when you as a user type something into their search engines you are getting listed in order of relevance.

Those that search will be aware that many search engines are still some way away from getting it exactly right. With so many optimisation companies out there trying to 'beat the system' it is a constant struggle for the search engine companies to achieve their desired results.

Which leads me to the question that is most relevant to this blog - while making the above statement Matt was asked from his experience how many changes did Google make a year to its algorithms?

His answer - usually one a day, sometimes as many as 400 algorithm changes a year.

That is 400 extra ways that Google reviews your site to determine your online position relevant to your search criteria every year. It is no wonder that so many companies pay SEO professionals to stay ahead in the search engine marketing game.

From my point of view the issue is - get the site right, make it really relevant to what your customers are looking for and you can't go wrong. It is exactly this process that Google are trying to encourage and Cohere have been pursuing that philosophy since we first started working for clients on the Internet.

Ryan.
Cohere Marketing for sound marketing advice and effective optimisation services