For a long as Google began calling the shots when it came to what it takes to rank a website, there have been countless attempts to dissect, understand, and reverse engineer their algorithm. It is seen by many as some kind of magical formula held in a vault, guarded no doubt by a mystical three-headed dog.

The reality is a lot less exciting and if anyone took time out to read some of the more informed SEO articles and blog posts that have been written, they will discover that most of what Google is looking for in a website, is already out there and available for them to implement.

This is further evidenced, when you consider that Google themselves are not slow in coming forward to tell all those who pay attention to them, what is driving them in terms of the changes they make to their algorithm. Ok, we may not have every last detail as otherwise, every website would be a clone of all the others, but we do have lots to go on.

One such example is an announcement came from Google where they outlined three principles by which website owners and SEO experts should be approaching how they seek to rank websites. It was not some intricate formula, but rather advice on how to approach SEO which Google insists fits in with their own philosophy.

#1 Embrace Google’s Changes Rather Than Fear Them

Google is always going to be making changes to its algorithm and therefore which ranking factors have more influence. Google’s advice is that rather than being scared of those changes, webmasters and SEO consultants should accept them and use them to their advantage.

They suggest that the changes are an opportunity to experiment and evolve, with content being a prime example of where trying to prove relevancy has made the quality of what is published on websites infinitely better than it was. They see that as way for everyone to be raising their game to the benefit of all who use the internet.

#2 Get The Small Details Right For Big SEO Benefits

Google tells us that trying to make huge leaps up the rankings all at once is not a strategy they recommend. Instead, they suggest that making small changes that incrementally improves your website’s SEO, is likely to prove a more positive strategy, especially when it comes to ranking.

The algorithm that Google uses measures hundreds of different SEO factors. If you have an SEO campaign that tries to improve as many individual elements on-site and off as possible, there is a greater chance of those improvements having a cumulative positive impact.

#3 Focus and Consolidate

Whilst many businesses need to build additional web presences as they grow, Google recommends that you focus on one website unless it is absolutely necessary to build more. They cite their own experience of building multiple satellite websites for their Google Retail platform but found that duplicate content on the multiple sites confused their customers.

Google also points out that duplicate content on multiple websites can also confuse search engines. The result of this is that instead of one website that has a high ranking, its power is diluted down, and you end up with several websites that have moderate rankings.