Search engine rules are similar for everyone, big or small, business or individual. Dare to twist and you are at sheer risk of hurting traffic, sales, and brand. Getting straight to the lessons (implications more appropriately) you most certainly look for right now, let me lead you to a leading English daily of India that we love to read-The Hindu. The site today has made some changes to its website post the demise of Jayalalithaa Jayaraman, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, which are important for everyone concerned about search engine results.
Jayalalithaa, one of India’s most powerful and popular politicians has passed yesterday and since internet is one big medium today in our lives to give vent to various emotions, sorrow, happiness, and grunge, all social networks and new portals, e magazines are recording this unfortunate event religiously.
I too went online today morning to pay my tribute to one of the ladies Indian history will revere for ages. Before it could come about, The Hindu was ready to give a shock of life (view below)
Commonly, in The Hindu title tags, we see search terms relevant to news readers like : Breaking News, India News, Elections, Bollywood, Cricket, Video, Latest News & Live Updates.
Going to The Hindu today will show you a pack of keywords (Jayalalithaa, Jayalalithaa death Jayalalithaa demise, Jayalalithaa Funeral, Rip amma, AIADMK, Tamil Nadu Politics, Sasikala) added to its title; which as per Google is a bad practice of search engine optimization.
Also Read: How will Google’s RankBrain Impact SEO in the Future?
Up next- The points to take home for businesses and SEO companies that are unaware of the repercussions of twisting Google guidelines for some instant results (which fairly don’t exist).
1. First things first, Adding any term that doesn’t connect with your brand identity is hurtful for your image. For instance, if the title tag of an ecommerce website selling various products reads ‘buy cheap shoes’, it is likely to attract attention of low budget customers only.
And, the brand will lose rest of the buyers due to a price focused impression that doesn’t connect with the shopping interests of quality seekers.
Below are the examples of appropriate titles from the viewpoint of branding:
2. Even though The Hindu is a big brand, changing the title and adding too many keywords didn’t bring it on the top of search engine rankings . It clearly tells, there are no shortcuts to high search engine rankings of Google. All other news sites still rank above for most of the stories related to deceased CM of Tamil Nadu.
3. Not just for you and I, but there’s something for Google too to think through as the search giant has been working hard to toughen up its algorithm. But, such temporary changes (although not very effective from rankings perspective) go unnoticed many a times. Will Google ever be able to have complete control over search quality?
The aim of analyzing and sharing the results of this title change was to reaffirm whether Google gives you any kind of instant benefit if playing a few of tricks is feasible. The answer is NO, which is a good news for white hat SEO world.
There are no shortcuts; optimizing search engine is a long term investment, which generates certain returns only if you have kept it strictly straight and narrow.
FATbit shares the irrepressible grief that the nation goes through today after we have lost Ms. Jayalalithaa, a lady that inspired and impacted masses. May the soul rest in peace.
