Google spam czar Matt Cutts issued a tweet the other day about more Panda updates coming and speculation is these may become regular. In the past, he would use his blog to post what came to be called 'Weather Reports' about upcoming changes to the search algorithm.
The SEO industry would love this to happen. Any transparency, or warning, regarding Google changes would help website owners and marketers anticipate what will be needed to maintain their presence in the search results.
The company has reached out to us with specialized tag inclusion requests and (with maybe a little grumbling) we have complied. Letting us know that poor spelling or grammar will be a new filter would allow people to go in and address the issues before the filter came down and dropped our sites. Or, if one thought the site was OK, at least we'd be aware of the general reason why search rankings had changed.
When Google Chairman Eric Schmidt spoke at the US Senate hearings, he was asked if their methods could be a little more transparent. His reply: "there is a limit to the amount of transparency - it is proprietary and if it was more open it would be heavily gamed - we can do a better job describing our changes."
Perhaps this latest tweet by Cutts is the start of this new openness.
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