Google has once again updated their search engine algorithm and Page Rank. This has caused great joy for many webmasters, while others are scrambling to find out what happened to their websites page rank. Here is what you need to know about the most recent update and how to prepare for the next one.

By Guest Writer Brandon Leibowitz

Keep your content fresh

Goggle’s newest page rank update, occurring late October/November 2009 seems to favor new pages. New pages are pages that have recently been added to your website, or have undergone major changes in content.

Existing pages with no updates or slight modifications had a loss in page rank, while pages that are new have passed on the link juice from the homepage to deeper pages. This is consistent in many sites I personally manage for myself and existing search engine optimization clients.

This just proves that Google loves to see fresh, new, original, updated content on webpage’s. Stale, old recycled information should be changed frequently on your website. Not doing so means that your pages will suffer from lower search engine rankings than desired. Even if the URL has been changed — if the content has not been changed there will be no PR for the page.

Textual content is key

Simply changing the layout, template, images, etc will not cut it. This is because the search engine spiders cannot read or comprehend these. The search engines can easily read text, but images and website layouts are more challenging.

Alt tags, alternative text, allows for the search engines to get a word sample of what the image is telling visitors. This can drastically improve a website’s search engine optimization. Therefore, changing your template will not suddenly push your page rank through the roof. The textual content is the key factor to increasing website page rank in Goggles eyes.

Major changes to the text are required

In order to improve your Google Page Rank you must really change your website content. This does not mean simply adding a few lines of text, reordering around your content, or using auto generated content. Major changes to the text should be made, even if this means starting from scratch or rewriting all of your existing copy. This is a daunting task and cannot be performed on every website.

E-commerce sites would have trouble updating their product descriptions multiple times throughout the year. In this case, occasionally changing the content or adding slight modifications can still help preserve the page rank.

Mind your keywords

The new website copy should have the proper research done before implementing the changes. What this means is that you should search out profitable keywords for your page. Profitable keywords are keywords that have a lot of searches, yet little competition. This means going after long-tail, niche keywords.

Once these keywords have been identified, they should be inserted into the websites title, meta description, and meta keywords, header tags, alt tags, and the content. Make sure not to overdo it as the search engines will view this as spam, negatively impacting your website, or even getting you permanently banned from the search engines.

Link structure matters

A websites should also have a flat navigational hierarchy. This means that your homepage, which typically receives the highest Page Rank from Google, should link to the most important pages in your website. The more pages the homepage links to on your website, the higher those pages will rank in the search engine. This is called passing on link juice from on webpage to another.

Imagine a tree table, in which there is one main site linking to many interior pages. In tcases like these, the other pages on a website that are not linked to the homepage will not receive as much link juice.

Preparing for the next update

In essence, to avoid losing page rank your website should update its content 3–4 times a year. This is because Google performs major page rank and algorithm updates 3-4 times a year. The updates usually occur around the same time, so expect to see another huge update in January of 2010. So start writing, or hire a copywriter to help write SEO friendly content for your website.

photo credit: lepiaf.geo

Brandon Leibowitz is a search engine optimization and marketing consultant with over five years of industry knowledge. To learn more about his consulting services visit his web site SeoOptimizers.com and read his SEO and SEM Blog.