Will ‘Vince’ steal your Google rankings?

Google recently announced a change to their algorithm, not an update (which is a bigger thing!), just a change. It appears that a Goolger named ‘Vince’ was instrumental in making these changes; hence the change got named the ‘Vince’ update.

Matt Cutts – Head of Google Web Spam team and all round Google communications vehicle was asked to explain a bit more about this change.

The question was put to him,

“Can you verify that Google is putting more weight on “brands” in search engine rankings? If the answer is ‘Yes’ — what is Google’s definition of a brand?”

So Matt starts answering the question in typical political style, explaining that Google don’t really think in terms of brands, they think more in terms of words like:

• Trust
• Authority
• Reputation
• PageRank
• High Quality

He goes on to say that the Google philosophy on search results has been the same since the beginning of Google, i.e. when someone types in a search phrase, Google wants to return the highest quality results in it’s Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

Interestingly, he then classifies some of the different types of searches:

• brand
• informational
• navigational
• transactional

Regardless of the type of search entered, high quality websites are what Google is looking to return.

Matt explains further that this ’simple change’ to the Google algorithm will impact on only a small number of queries and will have no impact on long tail queries, i.e. longer search phrases.

So, what is the definition of a high quality website, Matt explains it as having the following attributes:

• A great website
• Become an authority in your niche
• Get links – naturally!
• Get talked about
• People enjoy

If you’re left wondering does this change really impact on anything, the answer is yes – for certain keywords!

Maybe, recent comments by Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, can shed a bit more light on the subject…’The internet is fast becoming a “cesspool” where false information thrives‘

Mr Schmidt went on to say,

“Brands are the solution, not the problem,” “Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.”

“Brand affinity is clearly hard wired,” he said. “It is so fundamental to human existence that it’s not going away. It must have a genetic component.”

If you’re competing against keywords that are relevant to bigger brands, expect the ‘Vince’ change to start stealing your rankings.

What about you? Have you seen some of your rankings slip lately and bigger brands gain traction?

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