Google’s latest search algorithm is named Fred, breaking the long tradition of animal names like Penguin, Panda, and Parrot. So why break tradition? Because this update is about something specific and new – sites more interested in generating ad revenue than in providing useful content to their users.

You know the ones; You’ve clicked on them in your social feeds. The “recipe” sites that get your click with their slick vid tutorials and then have a short paragraph of content before the link to the real recipe site that originated the recipe. These sites started outranking the original sites in Google’s organic listing, frustrating users by requiring multiple clicks to get to the content they really want.  And Google is having none of it.

SEO isn’t about subverting Google or trying to get around a mysterious algorithm.  SEO is about providing the best possible content and experience to your site’s users and then proving it to Google. Easier said than done of course, which is why SEO is such an important factor in your business’s online decisions. (Warning: Shameless service plug coming.) We can help with that. But the tenets of solid SEO work are no different than they were years ago, and Fred doesn’t change that.

According to Search Engine Land, many sites that were affected by Fred lost up to 90% of their organic traffic. This is a body blow to any business model, but especially the model that requires high traffic to drive high ad revenues, which has always been the case with junk sites that exist to get views and are constantly looking for ways around Google’s algorithms.

Want solid SEO? Provide your users great content. That’s the first step.

Curious about how to take the next steps? Give BadCat a call!