The search engine giant changes its search algorithms regularly, often several times a day. The process consists of live tests and evaluations by external Search Quality Raters. While these individuals don’t affect your rankings, they are useful in determining the impact of algorithmic changes. The process is not a secret; there are public channels for algorithm updates by Google and plenty of documentation about the algorithms.
Google has a billion-plus webpage index and analyzes them for keywords. These results are then ranked according to relevance. The pages that are most relevant to a search query show up at the top. The algorithms are continuously evolving, and your search engine optimization strategy needs to adapt to the changes.
To determine which updates will affect your website, keep track of your keyword rankings. Try to check your rankings around the time of the algorithm update, so you can prepare for any potential changes. You can use tools such as Google Search Console or Semrush to monitor individual keyword rankings. Semrush’s Position Tracking tool allows you to monitor keywords’ rankings and SERP features.
The first major update to the Google algorithm came in November 2003. This was known as the Florida update, and it affected retail sites that had high volumes of commercial terms. The update penalized sites that used keyword stuffing, which is the practice of using the same keyword across different pages. This practice led to the impression that Google was favoring established sites over newer sites.
Google’s algorithm updates aim to improve the user experience. As such, they prune out content that is low quality, illegal, or simply doesn’t meet Google’s standards. This also helps to improve the experience of the user and make search results more relevant. When deciding what content to include on your site, be sure to check the page load time, navigation, and the amount of ads.
Google has an algorithm that uses thousands of different factors to rank webpages. It uses these factors to determine which webpages are the most relevant to the search query. Google makes updates to the algorithm every year. Some of these changes are small, while others are major and have an effect on the quality of search results.
The January 2020 Core Update impacted health and finance websites the most. It penalized sites with low credibility and promoted those that are original and helpful. This update was a logical extension of the Medic update two years ago. The goal of the Core Update is to improve the user experience by making search results more relevant. In addition to the core update, Google makes thousands of updates to its search algorithm every year. Some of these updates are pre-announced by the company, which allows websites time to adapt and make any necessary technical changes.
RankBrain is a machine learning system that understands users’ intent and personalizes search results. It uses a user’s search history, implied words, and context to provide the most relevant results. The algorithm largely penalizes pages that lack context and don’t use contextual terms in their content. As a result, many webmasters and SEOs began using tools that analyze the ranking of their pages by counting how many times words are used.