The world of Search Engine Optimization has been busy this month. Fast on the heels of 4 Major Google Updates in a three week period, we have now received new updates you can now find within Google Webmaster Tools.

Recent Google Updates:

09/27/12 Google Panda Update 20 – poor quality content update.

09/28/12 Google EMD Update 1 – penalties for exact match domains.

10/05/12 Google Penguin 3 Update – Links and webspam update, algorithm based.

10/09/12 Google Top Heavy 2 Update – Page layout algorithm change.

The good news is that Google does appear to becoming more transparent, and they are doing a much better job of letting us know what changes they are making to the algorithm. No one knows if the algorithm updates occurred this frequently in the past, or if Google is just better at making the information public much faster today.

The bad news is we all need to get busy updating and upgrading everything on our websites. SEO Fundamentals, Updated Content, and a good Link Audit are becoming a bi-monthly requirement if traffic is important to your business. It’s time to step up.

SearchRankings.Net is getting ready to launch a new website, and one of the first new services we will begin offering are webinars to help explain all the changes that seem to come down every few days in the wonderful world of Search. Stay tuned to find out when the new site will go live, and when our first webinar will be held.

Disavow Links Tool in Google Webmaster Tools

Matt Cutts announced a new tool that will be available to Advanced Webmasters to report links you have not been able to remove from your website’s backlink profile. This news is only a few days old, so SearchRankings.Net is in the process of reviewing the tool and the information.

At face value the ability to “Crowd Source” bad links is interesting, but it then puts website grading in the hands of the “Crowd”. A tool you can use to report links you no longer want, sounds a little bit like a Google Penalty Validation Tool in some sense? Much more to come on the new Disavow Tool.

Finally, just for fun, Google announced that “Practically 100%” of all manual website penalties are now available in Webmaster Tools. Way to go Google you are practically 100% transparent yet again!

Special Thanks to Search Engine Land, for constantly putting up fantastic content, SearchRankings.Net is always happy to link to! www.searchengineland.com