The introduction of Hummingbird has benefited the most from sites that do not necessarily contain a keyword, but do cover the subject matter. Therefore, currently, website optimization involves creating and optimizing content that is useful to the user, and not artificially stuffing keywords into the text. By introducing Hummingbird to the search algorithm, Google wants to encourage site creators to use natural language and write for people, not just for robots.
Date introduced: August 2013
Goal: Providing users with more relevant search results, better understanding of queries
Who Benefits: Pages Answering Long-Tail Queries
Who lost: Pages that do not use natural language in their content and use keyword stuffing
Pigeon (Google Pigeon)
Google's algorithm update, codenamed Pigeon, is a change that affects local search results . With it, user location has become important, so that results can be better tailored to their intentions.
The update was introduced for English-language phrases in two stages. The first update (July 24, 2014) covered local searches in the United States. On December 22, it was time for the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.
The introduction of the Pigeon has helped to unify search results whether the user has used location information or not. The same factors are taken into account when ranking local and global search results. This means that results for a query that includes a city or region may be similar to those without the use of location.
With the update, activities that can help with local positioning have gained importance, such as:
providing full contact details,
creating and optimizing a Google My Business listing,
placing consistent contact details (so-called NAPs from the English words Name, Address, Phone) in trusted local domains,
using structured data on the page in one of the recommended formats that the robot can easily read and interpret.
Launch date: July 24, 2014 (USA), December 22, 2014 (UK, Canada, Australia)
Goal: Better local search engine results
Who Benefits: Local service providers with well-optimized websites and complete Google My Business listings
Who lost: Businesses with poorly optimized pages, incorrect or inconsistent data across the web, a poorly configured Google My Business , or misleading structured data.
Google Updates to Increase Mobile Impact on Search Results - Mobilegeddon | Mobile Friendly Update | Mobile First Indexing
Google updates increase the impact of the mobile version on the position in search results - Mobilegeddon | Mobile Friendly Update | Mobile First Indexing.
Mobilegeddon - Mobile Friendly Update
The popularization of smartphones and the overseas chinese in canada data availability of fast, and most importantly, cheap mobile Internet contributed to the increase in the number of users browsing websites using mobile devices. Google also noticed this trend and so on April 21, 2015, the update with the charming name Mobile Update saw the light of day . Many expected a revolution in search results - hence the common name Mobilegeddon - but it did not happen. Yes, websites with a mobile version began to appear higher in SERPs, but the whole process dragged on in time.
The Mobile Friendly Update was dictated by the rapid growth in traffic from mobile devices and an attempt to persuade website creators to adapt their sites to be displayed on lower resolutions.
A continuation of changes in the Google algorithm, rewarding websites adapted to mobile devices, was the Mobile Friendly 2 update released on May 12, 2016.
There are several ways to check whether a website is adapted to lower resolutions. Here are 5 of them, which we use every day at Agencja KS:
Using the Mobile Optimization Test tool - you can test one page at a time,
Using the Mobile-Friendly Bulk Testing Tool - you can test up to 20 pages at a time,
Go to the tab: Mobile Support in Google Search Console,
Testing your website on a smartphone,
Testing your site using DevTools Chroma in mobile view .
It is important to remember that mobile is a feature of a single page. Within a domain there may be pages that are fully adapted to low resolutions as well as those that will contain errors.
A milestone was the announcement by Google that it would switch to determining the position of a website, taking into account its mobile version first. Mobile First Indexing was launched on March 26, 2018, and gradually included an increasing number of domains. Today, for most websites, the indexing robot is GoogleBot, which crawls websites designed for smartphones. This shows how important a website designed for devices with lower resolutions is.
Update date: April 21, 2015 (Mobilegeddon), May 12, 2016 (Mobile Friendly 2), March 26, 2018 (Mobile First Index)
Goal: To increase the ranking of pages adapted to display on devices with lower resolutions
Who gained: Responsive websites, portals with mobile versions in the subdomain
Who lost: Sites that are not smartphone-friendly, have unreadable content, or have clickable elements placed too close together
RankBrain - artificial intelligence in the search engine
RankBrain - artificial intelligence in the search engine.
RankBrain
RankBrain is an artificial intelligence , machine learning system that was introduced to the algorithm in 2015. Google officially confirmed its existence on October 26, 2015 and noted that it is the third most important factor in determining the position of websites.
The queries entered by users in the search engine are becoming more and more complex. It is no longer just about keywords, but about providing content that is as close as possible to the searcher's intentions. These assumptions were used to create the RankBrain self-learning algorithm. The algorithm compares words and phrases and looks for connections between them. Thanks to this, pages that do not contain a keyword can also achieve high positions, if only the algorithm considers that they will meet the user's expectations.
Date of introduction: unknown, official confirmation of the existence of the algorithm: October 26, 2015
Goal: Return search results that are more relevant to user intent
Who Benefits: Sites That Care About Positive User Experiences
Who lost: sites with high bounce rates or those that cause users to enter the site and then return to the search results (pogo sticking).
Opossum Update
Possum Update.
Possum
A series of changes to the algorithm, made by Google around September 2016, had a significant impact on local search results. Opos , as these updates were called, made local search results dependent on the user's physical location . Thanks to this, small businesses operating on the local market have a chance to promote themselves in the search engine. Businesses with their headquarters outside a given city also gained.
Additionally, companies sharing the same address with another company with a similar business profile have had their rankings lowered. This is to prevent the creation of listings for the same company with different names in order to dominate search results.
Companies that want to appear high in search results should take care of the so-called local positioning , which consists of, among other things, creating and constantly updating a Google My Business card, optimizing the website with regard to location and obtaining mentions in directories and on local websites.
Date introduced: September 1, 2016
Goal: More relevant search results based on the user's physical location
Who benefited: Local businesses and businesses offering services in a given city but based outside of it
Who lost: Companies sharing the same physical address with a similar business
Google Intrusive Interstitials Mobile Penalty
Google is increasingly focusing on the satisfaction of users using the Internet on mobile devices. A number of changes in the algorithm force website creators to adapt their websites to smartphones and tablets to the greatest extent possible. On January 10, 2017, Google went a step further and introduced penalties for websites that made it difficult to access content by displaying intrusive full-size ads (Intrusive Interstitials) to users. Portals that immediately after a user enters the website, serve them an ad that obscures the text, risk lowering their ranking (which translates into drops in positions) or even penalization, i.e. removal from the Google index.
Not all types of pop-ups deserve a penalty. Among the types allowed by Google are cookie information and age-based restrictions for content that is inappropriate for minors.
