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SEO BrightonLast week on Twitter, Google’s Matt Cutts informed us about the release of the third version of Google’s Payday Loan algorithm. The first version of that algorithm was announced just over 12 months ago.  All well and good you might think but this latest change could affect the SEO ranking of your Brighton business too.
So, What is Google’s Payday Loan algorithm?

This is the second Payday Loan algorithm update within the past 4 weeks so those companies such as ‘Wonga’ and the like that offer high interest short term loans are very much on Google’s radar.  In May, Google announced via Matt Cutts a version 2.0 of Google’s Payday Loan algorithm update.

According to release details presented by Matt Cutts, version 2.0 of the update targeted spammy websites, whereas this new version 3.0 targets spammy queries.

Unfortunately, Google does not clarify exactly what the difference is!

The Payday Loan algorithm targets not just obvious search queries such as “payday loans” but also other popular spammy keywords such as “casinos”, “viagra” and other keywords that relate to what Google deems to be ‘unsavoury’ business types which includes the betting industry and adult sites.

How is this different from Google Panda and Google Penguin?

The Payday Loan algorithm is not related to Google’s Panda or Penguin updates.

The Panda algorithm targets websites with low quality content. For example, the Panda algorithm makes sure that web pages with automatically generated content do not achieve high rankings in Google’s search results.

The same applies to websites that contain poor quality, low value or very shallow content.  Good quality content is a fundamental requirement for your online SEO success.

The Penguin algorithm targets website that try and gain SEO advantage by building spammy or artificial links. For example, websites that are linked to fro link farms or paid link websites are very likely to be penalised by Google.

How will this affect your website’s rankings?

If your Brighton business website does not compete in a spam heavy industry  promoting drugs, gambling, adult services etc. then the chances are that likely that the rankings of your website will be unaffected by these changes.  If your company is involved in say the pharmaceutical industry however it may well find itself being unfairly penalised by this recent algorithm change.

What should be understood by all businesses however is that Google doesn’t like spam.  For that reason, your website will only gain higher SEO rankings in the search engine results if you avoid all spam methods when promoting your website. If you want to get high rankings that will last and be largely unaffected by any future algorithm changes we can help.  We only use white-hat SEO methods that play by the rules.  We also make sure that we keep up to date with the rules.  Does your current SEO provider do this?

Call us today on 01273 328877