Google scores small daily changes and adjustments in your algorithm. In addition, changes and updates to the algorithm are made on a regular basis, which are gradually deployed. These changes are intended to improve the user experience when searching on Google and also to adapt the company’s different algorithms to new forms of use and new search types.
Although the first changes to the algorithm were introduced in 2000, the official update was Google Brandy from 2004.
Most of these changes and adjustments to the algorithm are not announced by the company, others are, but Google does not explain what changes they will bring. Because of this, it is often difficult for SEO professionals to predict how algorithm updates will affect SEO positioning. The closest thing Google offers to an explanation are the 200 quality factors.
In addition to all of these changes and regular updates, Google has released several major changes so far, and these are the ones that they have their own name, como penguin, panda, hummingbird, pigeon or page experience.
What are changes to the Google algorithm?
An algorithm is a logical process on which a step-by-step process is based to solve a problem. In the case of Google, the problem is “finding the most relevant results for a search”. Google’s algorithm is the solution to this problem as it finds, classifies and submits the results.
The algorithm changes are intended to improve the way Google’s search engine understands the questions asked, how it finds web pages, ranks them from most to least relevant, and how it communicates and displays the results to the user.
As mentioned earlier, most of these changes are made on a daily basis without notice. For example, Google made up to 500 changes to its algorithm in 2014 without any major changes in position.
From time to time, however, Google makes radical changes, as was the case with Penguin, Panda, or Page Experience. These updates do make big changes at positions. Because these updates should solve classification problems (avoid bad practices or black hat SEO) or adapt the results to new search forms (visual or linguistic search).
What was the first change to the algorithm?
While many believe that Panda was Google’s first change to its algorithm, in reality it is not. To find the first major update to the algorithm, you have to go until 2004, the year it hit the market. brandy.
This change drew Google’s attention to anchor text as well as Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), which the algorithm used to examine the content of other pages on the same site to see if they contained the same search terms.
What are the benefits of the algorithm changes?
One of the main benefits is the dedication to the user experience. As a result, the algorithms penalize those results that position artificially or that they use bad practices to position themselves.
This means that any website that produces quality content and cares about its SEO strategy will rank correctly on the search results page (SERP).
These changes have also resulted in the content changing. In the past, short content with high page rank links was very well positioned. Nowadays, however, it is better to create a strategy with large, well-detailed, and deep content (in-depth content), which over time have a greater chance of being useful.
At the same time, new content also helps to improve the rankings. This is because Google gives the website a score every time new content is published. Over time, this score will be watered down and the website will need more content. This score can change the position of a website.
In short, these regular changes to Google’s algorithm allow content creators who “play by the rules” to rank properly and gain visibility. At the same time, it penalizes any pages and websites that do not match them and improves the user experience for both those doing searches and webmasters.
