The Google “Zebra” update is both rumor and an SEO inside-joke. As of today, there is no Google Zebra update. The myth arose after comments Matt Cutts made at a conference regarding merchant quality. It was dubbed “Zebra” because Google seemed to favor black and white animal names for their algorithm updates aka “Panda” and “Penguin” (the recent Hummingbird, not withstanding!). But jokes aside, the recommendations in this article by Michael Campolattano are valid (on a case by case basis). Sorry for any confusion.
Recently, a certain search engine’s algorithm updates have not been so nice to most of the web. These Agents of G.O.O.G.L.E (yes I’m a Marvel fan!) arrive quietly, then tear relentlessly through the fabric of our very SEO souls! And what makes these updates even more frightening (and creepy) is these kill shots come in the form of cute and cuddly animals. I mean who would be afraid of a cute little Penguin…awe…or that cuddly Panda? And when was last time crowds ran screaming “The Hummingbird is coming…run for your lives!”? Never!
Well, the animal pain train is on its way again and this time its newest addition comes directly from the plains of Africa – code named “Zebra” or as I like to call it “Your eCommerce store is toast…losers”! Really, G.O.O.G.L.E should stop patronizing us and start giving these updates appropriately scary names like Gargoyle or Dragon, Sabertooth or Piranha! How many people would try to game the system when G.O.O.G.L.E Piranha is on its way? The question is, who will G.O.O.G.L.E Zebra hoof stomp with their so-called “Merchant Quality Update”?
WHO IS GOOGLE ZEBRA?WHAT DOES IT WANT?
Essentially, agent Zebra is G.O.O.G.L.E’s latest algorithm update who’s mission is to clean up the eCommerce community and rid the world of low quality merchant scum! With online shopping growing exponentially each month, it was only a matter of time before G-Men developed plans to capitalize on our online shopping addictions. I know this is labeled a “Merchant Quality Update” but make no mistake, this is the beginning of Google picking off organic results like witnesses in a Gambino trial, hence protecting their paid media empire and forcing everyone to incorporate SEM into their strategies.
G.O.O.G.L.E is speeding towards a system of unintentional SERP results based on relevant, high quality sites that offer value to its given market, abolishing the very thought of keyword focused rankings. Most of us are huge supporters of this idea since 70% of the web is spammy garbage anyway. We are not, however, as oblivious as Daddy-G thinks. Now I understand that things change in any industry and given that ours is very young, I get that the SERPS are bound to be updated. However, SEO’s have watched organic listings dwindle so much over the past 2 years that today organic real estate makes up only a whopping 13% of a SERP! So you can understand how a lot of us get an uneasy feeling by this benign “Merchant Quality Update”.
Valuable above the of the fold real estate still features the normal 3 paid ads, but now (not surprisingly), it is joined by a plethora of G.O.O.G.L.E paid shopping ads.
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