Google is preparing a major update to its search engine that it says will improve the quality and authenticity of results.
In a new blog post, the company describes a series of changes to be rolled out in the coming months, with the broad goal of destroying “SEO-first” content designed to perform well in search rankings, rather than directly addressing the needs of readers.
Similarly, Google will try to de-prioritize non-original content and reporting, including information aggregators that do not themselves add value to the conversation, and promote product reviews that demonstrate clear first-hand experience.
Quality before quantity
Each year, Google releases many thousands of updates to its search engine ranking system. While most bring with them incremental improvements (and probably sometimes a degradation of the quality of the results), the latter are expected to have a significant impact on the user experience.
In response to questions from TechRadar ProGoogle’s Danny Sullivan, whose job it is to help the public understand Search better, explained that queries related to shopping, entertainment and technology, as well as how-to-style searches, are the most beneficial.
“Typically, we announce ranking updates that will be noticeable or we expect to be particularly felt by publishers,” he said.
“This is a significant update to our Search rankings, and we will continue this work with additional updates along these lines in the coming months. Users should expect that the usefulness of search results will evolve and improve over time.”
In a general sense, the goal is to minimize the frequency with which users are disappointed with search results because the content is designed mainly to get clicks or does not provide the information they need. Google says the update will provide more results that contain “things you haven’t seen before.”
On the other hand, the update is also expected to significantly affect publishers and content creators. Sullivan told us that outlets that already provide “original, useful content” likely won’t be affected by the change or may experience an increase in traffic. Others, however, will likely see their pages drop in rankings.
“This update combines various page and site signals to determine page rank, but you can primarily describe content as useful and designed to help or inform people, rather than ranking highly in search engines,” he added.
“Specific tactics creators can consider in their content include clearly demonstrating personal experience or depth of knowledge about a topic, and giving your site (and content) a primary purpose or focus.”
This doesn’t mean that Google will penalize publishers who follow SEO best practices to “bring added value to searchers”; it’s about not encouraging clickbait, an approach that favors quantity over quality, and shortcuts designed to game the system.
https://www.techradar.com/news/google-search-is-changing-in-a-big-way/
