So…it seems that Google just made that kind of change. And the SEO community is freaking out. The change is being called “Fred” and don’t ask why because it’s an inside-nerdy-SEO-community joke. Plus, it’s not important.

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What is important is that some believe the Fred update focuses on link quality. A basic tenet of search engine optimization is that the more companies that link to your website, the higher web ranking you will receive. With the “Fred” change, Google is now not just looking at the number of links, but it’s tweaking its algorithm to judge on the quality of those links. For example, if my friend’s website links to mine, then that’s nice. But if The Washington Post links to my website that’s way, way better because the Post, because of its traffic and content, is a more “quality” link. And yes, this is a blatant hint to my editors to please link to my website more, OK?

Although the change has not been formally announced by Google, many in the SEO community, including Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Land, suspect it already happened. “Many of the automated tracking tools currently show significant volatility and fluctuations, which is an indicator of an update,” he writes. “Plus, with all the industry chatter, and with webmasters both complaining about ranking declines and rejoicing about ranking increases, it’s likely that there was a Google update.”