Google Fred continues Google’s effort to reward websites with higher rankings when they provide users (customers) with the best experience.

While users are the definitive winners in this arrangement, this isn’t a selfless act.

Google wins again.

This update sets out to further reduce the visibility of content that isn’t user-centered. This way, when someone enters a search term, they pull up exactly what they’re looking for from the best source to provide them with that information.

The user is happy with the website Google suggested. They’re therefore happy with Google.

And Google comes out on top.

But this doesn’t mean you have to be the loser.

You can use this new algorithm update to your advantage to achieve that prized top ranking. Let’s explore how.

Quality Over Quantity

No one except Google actually ever knows that the exact algorithm. But updates are studied extensively to figure out what makes them tick.

And the focus on quality hasn’t changed. They’re simply getting better at weeding out low-quality content and backlinks.

That’s why it’s important to invest your time in acquiring high-quality links rather than “lots of links”. With the changes, lots of links from low-quality sites can hurt you.

Yes, Google can pull a disappearing act on your website.

When link building, focus on acquiring links for your site that have a high DA, sometimes called a DR, depending on the program you use.

DA is a term invented by Moz, a respected leader in SEO tracking tools.

This rating follows a scale of between 1-100, with 100 being the highest. The more links you have from high DA sites the healthier your link profile will be.

But there’s a catch….

Relevance Is Even More Relevant

Google Fred continues Google’s trend of considering the relevance of the website that’s linking to your website.

A high DA cooking site backlink to an industrial equipment site will seem a little strange to Fred.

The backlink may be completely legitimate. Perhaps a blogger on the cooking site references industrial equipment and wants to link to it.

Hey, it could happen.

But it won’t matter.

Does this mean that this link is bad? No. Some of these links that seem non-relevant will happen naturally.

Google Fred will be on the look out for lots of links from sites that don’t seem relevant. If your links from unrelated sites exceeds what might happen naturally, Google may penalize your site.

But again, only Google knows what they consider the backlink limit from unrelated sites. And this could include links to loosely related sites like directories.

So how can you work this to your advantage?

The best things for you to do is work on getting more backlinks from industry relevant websites with a high DA.

The more relevant, the better.

Invest in High-Quality Content

Create linkable content. It often takes longer than we’d like to build links through content. Because of this, we wouldn’t recommend this as a short term or primary linking strategy. But you could be missing out on free, natural links that your content can acquire over time.

Creating high quality, linkable content is a very important part of your long-term link-building strategy.

Create content that’s:

• Relevant
• Interesting
• Helpful
• Actionable
• Longer and more in-depth… not just longer with fluff.
• Has prominently placed facts and stats that people will want to link to
• Multi-media – videos, gifs, images, infographics, quizzes, slideshows, widgets, etc.
• Links to authoritative sources that help support your statements.

Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, 60% of the content we create isn’t effective at meeting goals. That’s bad news for competitors. But you can turn a challenge into your competitive advantage for link building and engagement.

Content that’s re-written, duplicate or spun by a computer program may have worked 5 years ago. But today, with Google Fred, you need a high-quality content from a human writer who specializes in writing Internet content.

Check Your Links

Check the strength of your link profile with tools like AHrefs and SERPs.

Through tools like this, you’ll see how many links you have for high DA sites and how many from low DA sites.

It will help to take a closer look at the websites linking to you. Are the relevant to your site? Is their content high quality?

If not, they may be using shady practices to obtain a ranking. It may serve them well for a time. But with updates like Google Fred, they’ll be found out soon enough.

You don’t want to go down with their ship.

You may choose to disavow certain links if you’re concerned that they’re not doing your site any favors.

Reduce Ads

Affiliate marketing isn’t going away. We’re not suggesting that you remove all of your ads. That would be counter-productive.

But ads should add value the user experience not crash their browser.

Sites that are providing very small amounts of content and then filling the page with ads are among those being hit the hardest.

Google doesn’t want these pages at the top of their searches. Users who are searching for information don’t want to click on these pages. They provide a bad user experience.

Instead make sure the content on the page is current, relevant and helpful to those that are clicking on your pages.

Check your page’s load speed on several devices. Don’t just consider load speed on the initial page, but as people click through the site. Hire beta testers to provide you with experience feedback.

Google Fred will reward sites that create the right content-ad balance and therefore the right customer experience.

A better content to ad ratio will produce more linkable content.

Google Fred Is Here

Google Fred is here. And it won’t be the last update. Google will continue to modify its algorithm. It will use improved technology to reward sites that value quality and the customer experience.

And it will penalize those who don’t.

Getting high DA relevant backlinks will help potential customers find your high-quality content and your website.

Getting these links isn’t easy. But we have the solution.

We’ve been successfully helping websites rank higher through backlinks for over 10 years. Learn more about how we can help you get not only more backlinks but the right backlinks. Reach out today.