Search Algorithms
Search engines have complex search algorithms which are used to ensure they are able to display the most relevant and useful results to their users. While algorithm changes are common and won’t usually affect a site’s ranking, search engines such as Google will occasionally introduce a major update which may impact search results. Our Hangout Notes cover insights from Google around these algorithms with best practice advice.
BERT Will Not Cause Sites to Drop in Rankings or Lose Visibility
BERT is used by Google in order to better understand queries and text. This won’t cause it to see a site as less relevant, but rather helps to identify if the website is relevant to the query being asked. This may affect traffic from long tail queries, but will help to send more relevant users to the page.
Google Algorithms are Constantly Evaluating the Quality of Content on Websites
There are different algorithms running all the time to collect signals about a website’s content in order to gain a notion of the quality and relevance for individual queries. A core algorithm update will not lead to a website being completely re-evaluated but will update the scores used.
Social Media Likes Are Not Used by Google as a Ranking Signal
Google doesn’t use social signals, such as Facebook likes, as a ranking signal for websites. This is because it can be hard for them to keep up with the signals as the pages change so frequently.
Google’s Algorithms Should be Able to Detect & Prioritize Original Content From Near Duplicate Versions
Google’s algorithms will ideally be able to detect spun content which has been rewritten from another source and see the original content as more valuable.
No Specific Way to Optimise For BERT Apart From Writing Naturally
There isn’t anything specific you need to do to optimise for BERT, as this update is about Google’s algorithms understanding natural language better.
Implementing Dark Mode Option Will Not Affect a Site’s SEO
Implementing dark mode on a website will not impact SEO. This is because it is usually implemented by CSS, which doesn’t affect how Google is able to crawl, render or index a site.
Google’s Core Updates Affect a Number of Ranking Signals, Rather Than Specific Ones
The core updates Google implements affect a number of the ranking signals that they use in their algorithms. They aren’t just focused on specific signals such as content or links.
A Readiness Classifier & Algorithm is Used to Determine Mobile-first IndexingA Readiness Classifier & Algorithm is Used to Determine Mobile-first Indexing
A readiness classifier is used to determine whether or not pages are ready for mobile-first indexing and looks at elements like internal linking, anchor text and content differences. However, if the algorithm determines that the majority of pages are ready then the site will be moved, even if some pages have content inconsistencies. This could impact rankings.
Pages Can be Shown in Google Discover Regardless of Language of Site
The language of a website doesn’t matter for its pages to be able to be shown in Google Discover. The main criteria is that they are crawlable and indexable.
Google Discover Isn’t Limited to Content From News Sites
The Google Discover feed doesn’t just contain articles from news sites. Blog posts and forum entries can also be featured within it.