May The Force Be With Your SEO

Last week on May the Fourth (known as “Star Wars Day” for the pun “May the Fourth be with you”) there was a big Google algorithm update. Some SEO nerds out there are calling it the “Star Wars Update” because it started rolling out on May 4th.

I’m going to be honest with you, there are a lot of people who get all up-in-arms and panic about big Google updates because of how much they affect rankings.

They definitely do affect rankings. There’s no doubt about that. Take a look at this site that was affected:

7.2 MILLION organic clicks to this website from Google in 28 days… down to 0 after the update.

(Don’t worry, this isn’t one of our sites. It was a site that was using black hat tactics to rank.)

But, that’s what happens when you’re on “The Dark Side.”

You see, in SEO there is a light side and dark side of the force (if you will).

It’s called “white hat” (light side) and “black hat” (dark side). Black hat is using tactics that are unnatural and seek to defy the algorithm in order to get to the top of Google. Well, as any Star Wars fan knows, the light side always wins.

So what is the light side of SEO?

It’s focusing on the user and giving them what they want. Black hat is focusing on you and what you want.

Whenever these updates happen, our team doesn’t worry much.

Google is on the light side of the force and cares about the user and so do we.

In a nutshell, every update to their algorithm is an attempt to make their search engine better at giving the searcher what they want.

If you’re creating great content and providing an experience on your website that’s always becoming more useful to your customer, you shouldn’t worry either.

And now I leave you with a Star Wars joke…