As well as search feature updates, like the quotation mark search tweak we reported on recently, Google is also constantly working ‘under the hood’ playing around with the algorithm in a bid to ensure search results are as useful, reliable, and trustworthy as possible. Google has recently released details of a big update in this regard, so let’s go through the details now.
Whenever you search for something on Google and then click on a search result, Google considers your visit to that site as a Google experience. This means that the search giant is actively trying to prevent Google searches taking users to poor websites. The latest Google update is trying to improve this situation by helping original content rank higher and pushing clickbait articles further down the pecking order.
Google announced the details of the update in a blog post yesterday and outlined the main details of the update as such:
“Next week, we’ll launch the “helpful content update” to tackle content that seems to have been primarily created for ranking well in search engines rather than to help or inform people. This ranking update will help make sure that unoriginal, low-quality content doesn’t rank highly in Search, and our testing has found it will especially improve results related to online education, as well as arts and entertainment, shopping and tech-related content.”
This means that sites that are simply copying information you can easily find elsewhere should start to drop further down the Google search rankings. Content, however, that offers unique, original, well-researched, high-quality content won’t be affected and may even see a rise in their organic search result positions.
To back this up, Google has also promised to continue refining the systems it has developed for finding and highlighting high-quality product reviews too. There is an understanding that these types of content are very common and also very important for shoppers who are looking for authentic content they can trust, to help them make valuable purchases.
This news follows last week’s report on the efforts Google is putting in to ensure that only the highest quality content makes it into Google Snippets.
