Digital Marketing

SEO Works With Algorithms – How An Algorithm Update Affects Your Site Ranking

Understanding the algorithms used by search engines, such as Google, can be puzzling. Let’s start from the beginning:

What is a search engine algorithm?

An algorithm is a mathematical process used by a computer to solve a problem or answer a question. Google, launched in 1998, is the leading search engine. The search engine algorithm was designed to find files on the Internet.

Google uses many algorithms, but the first one used is called PageRank, which measures the importance of all web pages (PageRank is named after Larry Page, the software developer and co-founder of Google). PageRank works by counting the quantity and quality of links to certain web pages to determine an estimate of the importance of the website and therefore its ranking compared to other websites in the same field or category.

Google has used the assumption that major websites are more likely to have more links from other websites and therefore rank the website higher on the search engine results page (SERP) . PageRank happens to be the best known algorithm used by Google. An entire business services industry to take advantage of PageRank is now called Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Google’s algorithms change between 500 and 600 times per calendar year, more than once a day. The changes are implemented to make the search experience more relevant to the user. Most of the changes are minor and generally do not change the ranking of the website to a noticeable degree.

For nearly two decades, Google has been refining its search engine service, getting more sophisticated, with its massive algorithms affecting the way websites are ranked.

What is an algorithm update?

Important updates have been rolled out on a regular basis, both named and unnamed. Companies that provide SEO services dedicate their resources to discovering how each change affects the websites they manage. The stakes are high, especially for e-commerce websites. If a website is created and maintained using best practices, with a focus on unique content and an easy to navigate user experience, the website will score well. A strong rating turns into a higher page ranking that will bring more traffic to the website.

Some of the updates named over the years have been: Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird, Pigeon, Possum, RankBrain, Mobilegeddon, and Pirate. Each update relates to a specific aspect of a website, such as website link quality, search for semantic content, and mobile-friendly (or responsive) websites.

How are algorithm updates revealed?

This is fascinating: some updates are announced; others are implemented covertly and done entirely by observing the page’s ranking activity. Google sometimes confirms updates after the update is released. Lately, Google has been silent about confirming updates to its algorithms. The SEO industry looks closely at metrics to determine what aspect of page ranking is affected. When they notice big changes in the search results, they conclude that an algorithm update has occurred.

What is Fred Update?

On Wednesday March 8, 2017, industry experts noticed major changes when using Google’s tracking tools. This algorithm change has been called the Fred Update.

Until experts fully grasp the meaning of the page ratings, the nature of the update is speculative. Fred Update is showing the first signs of being associated with the quality, not the content, of the links. Gary Illyes, Google Webmaster Trend Analyst, tweeted a picture of the colorful fish Fred on March 7: “DYK for each search result there can be multiple title candidates and the one believed to work best for the query is displayed at the users”. .

Since an evaluation is underway to select the best query result, looking at the pages that rank higher than your website can uncover opportunities to improve content without duplication. Unique content and quality links to and from your website will help improve page ranking. The most recent bulk algorithm update to date is Google Penguin 4.0 (Phase 1 and Phase 2). This update largely removes the penalty for bad links on sites and in turn devalues ​​bad links, which still negatively affects rankings, but not to the point where sites are penalized.

Penguin was important because it targeted low-quality websites that contained “spam” content. Their main concern was flagging websites that could harm users’ computers or cell phones.

Google Penguin 4.0

The Google Penguin update had been in development, under review, for two years before it was released. The update was actually released on September 27, 2016.

The second phase was launched on October 6, 2016. After the launch of this second phase, the “temperature” of the algorithm dropped and returned to relatively normal. Moz reports the weather by day by displaying the temperature or turbulence from Google’s algorithm. When Google makes a change, there is often a reorganization in the ranking of the pages. This week Moz’s temperature is 94o; this shows the likely effect of Fred Update.

Knowing the complex nature of evaluating the value of a website, understanding these updates, and recognizing how algorithms affect a website and its ranking is the job of companies providing SEO services. You can choose to do this work in-house, but hiring an outside company to handle your SEO is usually money well spent.

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