Clarification by Google About Its Recent Algorithm Updates

Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, has published a series of tweets regarding recent updates to search algorithms.

Google SearchLiaison @searchliaison
 · Oct 11, 2018
Here’s an update about updates -- updates to our search algorithms. As explained before, each day, Google usually releases one or more changes designed to improve our results. Most have little noticeable change but help us continue to incrementally improve search….

Google SearchLiaison @searchliaison
Sometimes, an update may be more noticeable. We aim to confirm those when we feel there is actionable information that content owners might take. For example, when our Speed Update happened, with gave months of advanced notice and advice….https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2018/01/using-page-speed-in-mobile-search.html …

7:04 PM - Oct 11, 2018
Using page speed in mobile search ranking
Official news on crawling and indexing sites for the Google index
webmasters.googleblog.com

Google SearchLiaison @searchliaison
Sometimes, we make broad changes to our core algorithm. We inform about those because the actionable advice is that there is nothing in particular to “fix,” and we don’t want content owners to mistakenly try to change things that aren’t issues…. https://twitter.com/searchliaison/status/1024691872025833472 …

Google SearchLiaison @searchliaison
This week we released a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. Our guidance about such updates remains the same as in March, as we covered here: https://twitter.com/searchliaison/status/973241540486164480 …
7:04 PM - Oct 11, 2018
 
Google SearchLiaison @searchliaison
This year, we shared about two broad core algorithm updates we had: in April and August. We also had a further update we can confirm, one that began the week of Sept. 24. With any broad core update, the full rollout time might be over the course of a week or longer….
7:05 PM - Oct 11, 2018
  
Google SearchLiaison @searchliaison
We understand those who do less well after a core update change may still feel they need to do something. We suggest focusing on ensuring you’re offering the best content you can. That’s what our algorithms seek to reward….
7:05 PM - Oct 11, 2018

Google SearchLiaison @searchliaison
For advice on great content, a good starting point is to review our search quality rater guidelines. Raters are people who give us feedback on if our algorithms seem to be providing good results, a way to help confirm our changes are working well….https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/mission/web-users/ …
7:05 PM - Oct 11, 2018

Google SearchLiaison @searchliaison
Important: search raters have no control over how pages rank. Rater data is not used in our algorithms. Rather, we use them as a restaurant might get feedback cards from diners. The feedback helps us know if our search “recipes” seem to be working….https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/mission/web-users/ …
7:05 PM - Oct 11, 2018

Google SearchLiaison @searchliaison
Important: search raters have no control over how pages rank. Rater data is not used in our algorithms. Rather, we use them as a restaurant might get feedback cards from diners. The feedback helps us know if our search “recipes” seem to be working….https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/mission/web-users/ …
7:05 PM - Oct 11, 2018

Google SearchLiaison @searchliaison
You’ll also find plenty of advice about good content with the resources we offer from @googlewmc -- from guidelines, to help pages and our forums. Learn more here: https://www.google.com/webmasters/ 

So, the key lessons to learn here are:

• Google releases updates every day
• Google confirms noticeable updates
• Sometimes Google releases broad core updates

Danny Sullivan offers the following advice regarding what to do after a core algorithm update,

 “We understand those who do less well after a core update change may still feel they need to do something. We suggest focusing on ensuring you’re offering the best content you can. That’s what our algorithms seek to reward.”

Tags: #Danny Sullivan, #GoogleUpdate, #Page Speed, #SEO