Google updates its core algorithm yet again

When the SEO community started noticing some significant ranking volatility last month, it was assumed that the long expected Penguin update had finally arrived. Others speculated that the fluctuations could be related to Panda in someway.

 

However, it was confirmed by Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst, Gary Illyes, that the changes were not caused by Penguin, Panda or any other animals, for that matter. It turns out that these disturbances were simply one of many recent quality updates. In other words, a change had been made to Google’s core algorithm.

What’s changed?

While significant changes in both desktop and mobile rankings have occurred, the community are still trying to come to conclusions about the general direction of the update. Fortunately, inferences can be drawn based on data from Searchmetrics, who post a list of search ranking losers and winners every week. It seems that news sites have taken the most damage, specifically for brand terms. The most affected site wasThe Atlantic, which suffered a loss in position for a multitude of terms.

If there is any obvious direction that can be discerned from this update, it’s that Google is looking to reward high quality content (this priority has been evident in previous updates too). It appears that the Atlantic and other major losers have taken punishment primarily due to older content on their sites. Conversely, publishers with current and holistic content such as Alaska Air have benefited tremendously.

Interestingly, this article about NFL superstar quarterback, Tom Brady, was a major winner as a result of the algorithm update (at the time, Brady was well on his way to another Super Bowl victory before this happened). The article contains over 3000 words of text, lots of images and is highly contextually relevant – something worth considering when orchestrating content from now on.

Read the full article on the Cambridge Web Marketing Co Site



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