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.