What Is Google Updates, And Why Do They Matter?
Google Updates: You may have already noticed that practically all the software that we use in our daily lives undergoes updates, that is, improvements. And when we talk about search engines, also known as search engines, this is no different.
These famous Google updates move digital marketing and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) professionals and generate many doubts, especially among laypeople. The truth is that understanding and putting these updates into practice is essential.
This is because the relevance and visibility of a website are directly related to updates published by Google. With that in mind, we created this content to clarify some of the significant doubts on the subject and follow along.
Google Updates: What They Are And Why They Matter
Google works more or less like this: a user has a question, types a keyword in the search engine, and the platform’s robots go from link to link, analyzing and identifying pages with relevant results for the search.
When errors and bugs are reported in this process, opportunities for improvement arise. After all, Google updates happen based on user experience, aiming to deliver better and more relevant results.
Updates made by Google modify the functioning of the search engine’s algorithm, which determines the order in which the results of a search appear. So, to understand Google updates, we need to know how algorithms work.
What Is The Google Algorithm?
The Google algorithm defines the main criteria that must be taken into account to guarantee the experience of users who visit a page on the internet. Based on these criteria, the positioning of these links is defined.
In this process, different factors are taken into account, such as the use of keywords (words or terms used by users during the search), page loading speed, and average user stay time, among others.
It is up to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) professionals to define the best strategies to improve the positioning of a specific website or page, taking into account user experience, algorithms, and updates made by Google.
Top Google Updates In Recent Years
It is possible to identify several Google updates of minor or significant impact. Daily updates and Core Updates are big updates that usually happen annually and generate more abrupt changes.
Over the years, some of the most significant updates have been to Google’s algorithms. Check out some of them.
PANDA
In this update, the goal was to punish sites with low-quality content. The elements analyzed range from copied or duplicated texts, bad backlinks, a high bounce rate, and a low number of recurring visitors.
PENGUIN
Here the focus was on non-legitimate link-building strategies. Buying backlinks, creating blog networks that redirect to your website, and excess links in anchor texts, among other practices, began to be punished.
HUMMINGBIRD
The use of keywords became more complex. As of this update, the algorithm also started to consider the use of related keywords and long tails, as well as the semantics and context of terms included in the text.
PIGEON
The update made search pages show results according to the users’ geographic position, and Google began to deliver complete information (address, telephone, price, among others), especially for small and medium-sized companies.
MOBILEGEDDON
Considering the number of users who access pages and websites through mobile devices, this update has increased the relevance of content optimization for tablets and smartphones as a ranking factor in search engines.
RANKBRAIN
In this update, Google’s bots began to acquire learnings from user searches. That is, they started to deliver better results even in cases where the searched terms are imprecise or ambiguous.
FAVICON And Position 0
One of Google’s most recent updates, Favicon, and position 0 now considers image icons associated with websites and featured snippet content optimizations as ranking factors.
How To Stay Up To Date With Google Updates?
There’s not much left: if you practice SEO actions on your website and aim to have a solid digital presence, it’s impossible to ignore the constant updates in Google’s algorithms, which are responsible for the ranking and positioning of the pages.
Therefore, the ideal is always to keep an eye on the market. And more than that, basing your content creation strategies on user experience is one of the most critical steps to getting the top positions in the search engine.
In addition to a digital marketing team, so as not to be penalized by the latest updates from Google, know that several tools analyze your website and can help maintain the excellent positioning of your pages.
These tools include Google Analytics, Website Auditor (Power Suite), Copy cape, Open Site Explorer, Duplicate Page Finder, Site liner, Small SEO Tools, Pingdom, GTmetrix, Web Page Test, Web Page Analyzer, and SEO Spyglass.
Google Disavow Tool, Web of Trust, Keyword Planner, Google My Business and rank tracker is another example of a tool that can help you keep your site always up to date and with content that is relevant to the public.
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