For the most part they are fighting a tough battle against spammers around the world, while small businesses wonder how to get noticed online. Collateral damage is what occurs to good websites when Google turns a know a little too much in one direction.
Google and other search engines have always faced the challenge to serve up the best possible results while sticking to their mantra that "if you build it well, they will come".
As of today in May of 2012, that is still wishful thinking. The only way that works is if you are Amazon, Wikipedia or another gigantic brand who gets "brand points" from Google and an automatic pass to the front of the line. In one way this makes it even harder for small businesses to compete with big brands.
However, as with any algorithm tweak and change, if the foundation of a website is correctly done, then as the swings occur, different parts of a solid website may become more valuable.
There were times when rich media was preferred, optimized images and of course the good-old-standby, text. Nowadays, the text on a webpage needs to do more than drone on and on about the positive virtues of a particular business, but get a little more detailed in terms of exactly what makes that business better and how their product or service will actually benefit the reader (in 8 seconds or less please).
Writing is then more of an artform as the title must hook the reader to read paragraph one. The first paragraph must in turn, then get the reader to look at paragraph 2 etc.. Time on site is an important metric, so the more engaging a page is, the better it looks in Google's eyes. So the newest Penguin update from Google has killed hundreds of thousands of pages online while causing others to settle.
For the most part, that is a good thing as automated tools and other black hat promotional methods were being used by far to many entry level SEOs, whereas slow and steady will win this race and build a long term, sustainable business. Hope you have not encountered the penguin on your website. For more advice, website design and optimization, contact Webmad Internet Marketing and Design.
