Blogs and the new Google rankings

Blogs rank well in the Google search results.



When people enter your most important keywords, into the Google search box, your blog is likely to rate very highly in the results.



Why should that be?



With Google's new, and rather controversial new algorithm (the mathematical calculation Google uses to decide which results are most relevant), non-commercial sites are listing very well in the returned results. That newly favoured area includes blogs.



Smaller commercial sites, dependent upon highly competitive keywords, did very badly in the recent Google update.



Why did blogs weather the storm so well?



Blogs contain what Google wants to see.



Google likes fresh content added to websites. Do blogs offer that? Check!



Google likes keyword rich articles that provide information to the web searcher. Do blog offer that? Check!



Google, despite some concerns over link trading practices, likes to see a lot of incoming links. Bloggers are natural and almost obsessive linkers. Check!



Blogs are just what Dr. Google ordered!



Lots of fresh content and relevant links, might just be the prescription for success, following the latest Google update.



For those of you who haven't been watching the search engine optimization community tear out their hair, the latest Google update was a shocker. The Google reworking of their algorithm, to allegedly penalize heavily optimized sites, has acquired the hurricane style moniker of "Florida". Many formerly high ranking sites have been lost from the search returns.



The new Google calculation has certainly hit real estate, and other popular keywords hard. Formerly high ranking sites are often no longer found anywhere within 50 pages of results.



Speculation about the occurrance has run everywhere from the conspiratorial (Google wants to sell more adwords); to Google problems (the Google system has broken down); to the avant garde (Google is experimenting and testing).



In any case, blogs came through the Florida storm, with little damage to their search positions.



Companies might be advised to add a business blog to their agenda for the future. You never know when the next Google induced hurricane might be brewing.



Since we can't do anything about Google's methods of calculation, the next best thing is to provide ourselves with some good storm insurance.



That insurance can be found in the form of a business blog.