Last November 3, 2011, Google finally confirmed and announced that they have made tweaks on search results through a blog post in their official Google blog titled ‘Giving you fresher, more recent search results’. The new Google Freshness Algorithm intends to provide the freshest and the most recent results from search queries. Amit Singhal, a Google Fellow, wrote that “Building upon the momentum from Caffeine, today we’re making a significant improvement to our ranking algorithm that impacts roughly 35 per cent of searches and better determines when to give you more up-to-date relevant results for these varying degrees of freshness.”
Many experts speculate that the major update in Google is a tactical response to social networking sites like Facebook and twitter which gives fresh news, gossips and information on the web. Unarguably, social media has transformed search.
“…Social media has changed the expectation of searchers. Searchers want fresher content, they want to see what their friends and contacts have to say, and they want access to experts and authority figures and their thoughts on timely events and news. Search engines have no recourse but to respond.”
-Bill Slawski
The new algorithm is a recognition that Google, whose dominance depends on providing the most useful results, is being increasingly challenged by services like Twitter and Facebook, which have trained people to expect constant updates with seconds-old news. This includes things like recent events, hot topics, current reviews and breaking news items.
Effects of Freshness Algorithm in Search
This major update in the algorithm of Google could benefit many internet users by providing the most recent information or news in the search engine. On the other side, this will bring negative impact on website owners and bloggers. With the new algorithm, the fresher indexed posts have more probability to get higher ranking so that users can easily find the most recent and relevant information for their queries. This major revamp of Google will affect nearly 35% of searches.
And the particular queries that will be impacted by this fall into three categories:
- Recent events or hot topics. For recent events or hot topics that begin trending on the web, you want to find the latest information immediately.
- Regularly recurring events. Some events take place on a regularly recurring basis, such as annual conferences or an event like the presidential election.
- Frequent updates. For example, if you’re researching the best slr cameras, or you’re in the market for a new car and want subaru impreza reviews, you probably want the most up to date information.
How to Rank Higher In Google’s New Algorithm in Search?
With the update in Google, visibility and freshness are crucial in making it in the top spot of Google. Here are few things to perform in order to address the changes that have been implemented by Google.
1. Include your blog in Google News
It is believed that with the latest update of Google’s Algorithm roughly 35% of the latest content, Google News have the potential to be a great source of traffic for blogs and websites. It can be a very easy task if you will follow the rules imposed by Google.
Before submitting your blog or article to Google you must realize that Google News section is a place for news related articles therefore how-to articles, advice columns, reviews, job postings and the like are not welcome.
You also have to make sure that your articles are unique and you have followed the quality guidelines.
2. Put Time Stamps in Your Content
With the advent of Google Fresher including a timestamps to the posts is necessary as it will aid the crawler in seeing your content’s freshness.
It is recommended to use the time stamp in YYYY-MM-DD format or YYYY-MM-DDThh:mmTZD or YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssTZD formats.
3. Add Forums or Question & Answers Section
Setup a forum or Question & Answers section related to your niche and make the fellow bloggers get engaged in the community, as these are the places where conversations could happen in real times and if your site has a huge potential among your reader and is one of the top sources in your niche you can even think about setting up your own social network.
4. Actively Use Social Networking Sites
Get involve in social networking site. Sites like Facebook, twitter and Stumble upon are very powerful tool in acquiring visibility and gaining the authority in the web.
I really agree with your blog.I think algorithm of Google could benefit many internet users.Great tips!!
Great blog post, Google is ever changing and people need to keep on top of the steps they need to take to keep their site ranking well! Well established Businesses and large sites should not be too affected by this, but thin dormant sites will have trouble keeping their site on page 1!
This is a fair sounding update, although it could lead to some quality articles drifting down the rankings. I’ve often found Google less than perfect when it comes to up to the minute info, so perhaps this well help (their time based search has always been useful though).
Thanks for keeping us updated, Noel. I’m going to have to tweak my pages a bit to keep up.
Thank you for sharing this post, Noel. It’s amazing how social media has challenged Google. This just proves that Twitter and Facebok can help boost the traffic and online presence of a website if used properly.
well, another update by google? when was it released? Sure it will have a big impact on the rank of many website once again. Thanks for sharing us this information, Noel!
I should check Google this time. I’m not updated to what happening in Google anymore. Thank you for giving this information.
Have a great new year!
I remember back when caffeine was introduced.That was really perfect work from for people who have been working on quality.They got much help.
Now its turn to freshness Algo, i believe its going to give huge advantage.
Now, this will make static websites moving. I mean, they will need to keep up with the current Google trending or else they will be on the back pages of the SERP’s. I can see a lot of openings here after the update. As I can see this is the year of the bloggers and writers. Content is indeed King! I can see also that job openings will increase in the outsourcing community.
Use of social media especially Google + has a great impact.
Good to see that Google is refining Internet.
Google algorithm can be benefited for us or not..we can not do about it if google
algorithm affects our sites.
Hmm…thanks for the info. I have been reading a lot on these things. In the end, I think google has done a great thing by updating its algorithm to support fresh and quality content. It is a welcome move and I fully appreciate it. Those tips are really very useful. I will surely work on it. Keep writing..!
Great news for blog owners, but what will happen to the static pages, Will they suffer from this update?
This Google update is really effecting on search engine ranking. The color formulation is very nice thing in this algorithm. Nice post
I really agree with the points you pointed out here. These new update from google could help us internet users a lot. Thanks for these awesome tips!!
Basically Google panda change algorithm frequently.. Anyway, in recent changed in algorithm, a SEO requires adapt a new strategies?
Is it effective in using algorithm of Google? I’am a social business man and I’m earning different idea’s to had a expansion to it.. Wish it is effective!
Yah i am agree with you that last year google panda update their algorithm.now google provide a recent results in a SERP.google only improve ranking of that site which is in good content.
This is true. I completely support this blog. The Google update is truly a helpful part in searching engine operator. So i personally suggest to all of you just check Google, it is really helpful.
I heard about this new change to the Google algorithm. While it has it’s advantages, it isn’t very helpful for corporations who have static webpages on their site. I hope it doesn’t have too much weight on the algorithm!
That’s true. Google is more reliable network for earning money than anyother.
Nice info which will be prove so useful for all blogger and online marketers. That kind of activities also make very good and nice way to search our destination.
Thanks Noel for updating us …Google always keep changing its algorithm and it is very confidential too…Google has done a great thing by updating its algorithm to support fresh and quality content..
Google is ever changing but the changes it implements are just response to the demands of the searchers.
Good thing you have shared this post about the newest algorithm that Google is using. This will really give a big help to people who are relaying their rankings to Google. I do agree that social media sites gives a big help too.
recent google algorithm (panda and penguin) are make many webmaster screw because some or many of their blogs rank drop or even got banned