Guide to Google Algorithm Changes

1st December 2021: Product Review Update

Following on from the Product Review update in April, another update has been scheduled and took 3 weeks to complete. Some argued the update was ill-timed in the lead up to the busiest shopping period in the year, but anecdotally these updates have never been too disruptive.

Google announcement references an automated assessment that is specific to product reviews and also notes these pages are still subject to the same ranking factors as regular web pages Within the product review best practices, Google states a requirement is that the product review needs to provide clear evidence that the product being reviewed has been used by the reviewer.  Secondly, the product review must offer multiple buying options and not just be a single affiliated link to purchase it.

30th November 2021: Local Search Update

The local search update began affecting local search results at the end of November and works were completed by the 8th of December.

This update included a rebalancing of ranking factors that Google considers when generating the local search results. Although Google recommended keeping in mind local SEO best practices it also referenced their help guide. The ranking factors for local search results include:

• Relevance: How well a local business profile matches what the user is searching for
• Distance: How far each potential search result is from the location used
• Prominence: How well known the business is

As Google doesn’t specify the details regarding the weight of each ranking factor it’s perhaps best to balance your efforts when it comes to these three factors.

17th November 2021: Broad Core Update

The November broad core update didn’t seem to change an awful lot, or have the disruptive impact of a normal major update. Many people in the search marketing industry regarded this update as very mild and theorised it was a shift in the underlying algorithm architecture, which just makes the system more effective.

3rd November 2021: Google Spam Update

Google regularly rolls out spam updates, and although the exact details of this update were not provided, it is more than likely to be generic updates to keep search results free of spam. Due to these updates, Google’s automated systems keep more than 99% of search results spam-free – in 2020 the system blocked 25 billion spam pages from being indexed in search results every day.

26th July 2021: Google Link Spam Algorithm Update

The link spam algorithm update focused on its algorithms, making identifying and nullifying link spam quicker and easier. This update took almost 1 month to fully implement across multiple languages. The original post by “Google Search Control” on Twitter reiterated the importance of qualifying affiliate links and guest posts that are used as monetisation techniques.

1st July 2021: Core Update

Although Google rarely specifies what is involved in a core algorithm update, we do know that they introduce changes across a wide range of indexing and ranking processes. Earlier in 2021 Google announced it was fighting spam with a new AI, so it is speculated that they have introduced new and efficient spam-fighting features that allow them to perform even better.

There was, however, some anecdotal evidence of an increase in spam in SERPs since the update. Including spam websites that appear to be able to hack Instagram accounts, and scraped websites ranking higher than the original, legitimate sites.

23rd June 2021: Spam Update

This update included two small updates a week apart, fighting spam in search results. Although exact details were not made available, it is highly unlikely that a legitimate website following Google’s webmaster guidelines will have anything to worry about.

According to Google, Spam is defined as a low-quality website that’s purpose is to trick users into providing personal information or installing malware onto their devices.

15th June 2021: Page Experience Update

Google announced that this page experience update finished rolling out on the 3rd of September. The statement made by Google Search Central on Twitter didn’t receive much response or feedback one way or the other.

Whilst relevance is still the most important ranking factor, page experience factors still qualify as important cues that merit consideration and attention. The official Google Search Central page for the Page Experience ranking factors states:

“…in cases where there are many pages that may be similar in relevance, page experience can be much more important for visibility in Search.”

2nd June 2021: Broad Core Algorithm Update

The June board core update is being followed by another in July, which is unusual for Google. This was due to not having everything ready in time, however, they stated that most sites are unlikely to notice a significant impact from either update.

It is worth noting that being negatively impacted by a core update isn’t necessarily a sign that you have done anything inherently wrong or that you are producing bad content. It may just be a sign that what was considered relevant then, may not be as relevant to today’s searchers.

8th April 2021: Product Reviews Update

In April, Google launched a product review algorithm update which was designed to uplift well-researched and in-depth content over short product summaries. In the announcement, Google stated:

“Google Search is always working to show the most useful and helpful information possible, through testing, experimenting and review processes. From this, we know people appreciate product reviews that share in-depth research, rather than thin content that simply summarizes a bunch of products. That’s why we’re sharing an improvement to our ranking systems, which we call the product reviews update, that’s designed to better reward such content.”

Going forward from this update, reviews that are short or only give brief summaries of the product will find it harder to rank. Site owners are encouraged to public holistic analyses of products including comparisons of similar or past products.

10th February 2021: Passage Ranking

Google’s Public Liaison for Search, Danny Sullivan, announced via Twitter that Passage Ranking was officially launched for English-language queries in the United States. According to Google: “This change doesn’t mean we’re indexing individual passages independently of pages. We’re still indexing pages and considering info about entire pages for ranking. But now we can also consider passages from pages as an additional ranking factor….”

This update was rolled out across other countries in the following weeks and months.