The recent Google algorithm update has caused a lot of concern in the website design world, and perhaps nowhere has this concern been expressed more than with small web companies that rely on organic traffic to get sales.

Unlike big companies, which are better placed to take the hit and make changes to their web marketing strategies should they be adversely affected, many smaller companies may simply not be able to cope with such a sharp, sudden loss in business.

As far as consumers are concerned, many will see the Google changes as a good thing, cutting out the generic rubbish produced by so-called content farms and hopefully replacing it with good quality content that actually contains the information they are seeking. The algorithm now gives sites with a poor website design that are designated as ‘low value’ a much reduced ranking, while sites featuring a professional website design and original content, with lots of in-depth information, will be given a big boost in their rankings.

However, the global economic impact of Google’s algorithm change also needs to be considered. Given the huge number of small web companies that rely on getting traffic from Google, this major change could cause severe ructions. Take the example of Mahalo, that renowned website design and content farming company, which has reportedly suffered such a drop in traffic that it’s had to lay off 10% of its staff. Note that Mahalo is what we consider to be a ‘big company’ in the website design world. The changes therefore, have the potential to cause even more hurt to small web design companies.

It’s probably too early for most small businesses to assess the impact Google’s new algorithm will have, according to All Web Services. However, the SEO company does seem to have a good idea of what has changed. It predicted that the SMBs hardest hit will be those that deserve to be affected. Small web companies that make little to no effort to provide useful content will see their ranking drop, and no amount of professional website design will save them if they haven’t made the effort to provide quality information.

But what will the effects be? This will depend largely on how much a small business relies on organic search results for its income. Those that garner more than 50% of their sales through organic traffic, yet rely on poor methods to get this traffic in the first place, could suffer badly – many may even go out of business. The rest will be forced to make big changes to the way they operate.

On the other hand, small web businesses that have a nice website design and make the effort to create unique, informative content could suddenly see their traffic sky-rocketing.

All Web Services recommendation to SMB owners is this: keep a close eye on the amount of traffic you receive over the next few weeks to see what impact Google’s new algorithm has made. While there are undoubtedly going to be a few websites that are unfairly hurt, if your rankings drop then you need to take a long, hard look at your site and ask yourself where you are going wrong. If you are guilty of producing a website design with poor quality content, then you are simply going to have to improve, or else face the consequences.


Source: PRWeb
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