Google Search, despite its dominance, is anything but perfect. In fact, the results it presents can get pretty stale over time.
For instance, a user searching for email marketing trends is probably looking for the most recent information on the subject, but may be presented with results from years ago.
Realizing that the freshness of results was starting to become a problem, Google decided to make some adjustments to its algorithm that address the issue. This latest update is a huge deal, so lets take a closer at the details and what it all means.
Trending Topics
Trending topics is terminology that is frequently associated with Twitter, but is now an approach Google is applying to search results.
According to Google, searches for hot topics that a lot of people are talking about, and recent events will now automatically produce results with updated information.
So, for example, a sports fan searching for the latest details on the ongoing NBA lockout will receive results that are at the very least, a few hours old, opposed to days, weeks, or months old.
Regular Updates
In order to provide users with fresher search results, Google has tweaked its algorithm to give prevalence to sites that publish regular updates.
The details on this particular aspect of the update are not exactly clear, but it appears as if sites with the most recent information on a specific topic will rank higher than those with information that is outdated.
From what we have been able to gather, this means that someone looking for reviews on say, GoDaddys web hosting service, will see reviews posted last week, before they see those published last month, months ago, and so forth.
This is a pretty significant change with huge implications from an SEO standpoint.
Recurring Events
Be it in the sporting field or entertainment industry, there are quite a few events that occur on a regular basis.
Some that come to mind are the NFLs Super Bowl, the annual Daytona 500, and the Coachella Music and Arts Festival.
Realizing this, Google made the decision to update its algorithm accordingly by tweaking it to put a special focus on such events.
With the recent changes in effect, users searching for information on a specific event will be presented with the most recent details opposed to results with information on older events.
Again, this follows the theme of giving prevalence to sites with the freshest content on a given topic.
SEO Implications
According to Google itself, the recent tweaks will impact about 35% of the searches conducted through its search platform. This is substantial in comparison to the controversial Panda update, which was estimated to impact roughly only 12% of searches.
The biggest implications here may apply to content publishers and marketers, the entities who optimize their sites for Google traffic.
If you are a website owner who has been enjoying high rankings and traffic on the strength of your content, that could all change now that the freshness and recency of your content is more important than ever.
Content Reads: