Posts About ‘algorithm’

Google Update affecting local Australian rankings?

A few reports are floating around these upside down Australian shores that a recent Google update may have rolled out a double whammy impact, targeting both the devaluation of spammy links as well as a direct impact upon location rankings within a particular area.

This second area is of particular interest for me, as it is so different to the European markets. Take the UK for example, although there are definitely changes in search results based on the actual location the search is undertaken from, it is also difficult to pinpoint geographical changes exactly due to the high number of cities within a relatively small geographical area. Here in Australia, this is very different. With only 6 states, and 4 or 5 key cities within the business sector – it should be quite easy for Google to provide the most relevant listing as per geographical location. (more…)

Google Algorithm Changes in One View

Google makes constant changes, over 500 a year. Not all of them are algorithmic (thank heaven), but some of the major ones are. It can be difficult keeping track of all of them. Here however is another overview of all the big algorithmic changes Google has made in the past 14 years.

We have seen similar overviews, but the overview that Outrider has made of the Google Algorithm Changes since the start of Google in 1998 until now is the best so far. (more…)

Google Decides Where You Should Put Your Ads, But What About Their Own Pages?

Who owns your website? On paper it is you. Because you are the one who is putting the content on your pages. In a perfect world you would however focus on your target audience and would fit the page so they would find what they are looking for within a micro second. In reality it is neither you or your customers who decide what goes where. It is companies like Google and Facebook who in the end make the decisions.

Google just made another decision for you. In a post on their Inside Search Blog Google announces an algorithmic change which makes Google one of the important deciders when it comes to what you put where on your site. Google’s newest change punishes those sites that have too many ads ‘above the fold’. At the same time they don’t seem to live up to their own rules. (more…)

Are We Controlled by Algorithms?

I think that it is not exaggerated when I say that many people in search are obsessed by algorithms. One little change by Google makes that many people in search jump up.

This video from the TED Conference shows Kevin Slavin. He argues that we’re living in a world designed for — and increasingly controlled by — algorithms. He warns that we are writing code we can’t understand, with implications we can’t control. A must see presentation.

How Does The Google Algorithm Work? 500 Changes Last Year

How does the Google Algorithm really work? Wouldn’t we all like to know. It would make some our jobs a lot easier. Or maybe it would leave us with no jobs, because if Google would just tell us how to rank, what job would an SEO have?

Google will never reveal its algorithm I suspect. But they are trying to be a bit more ‘open’ towards their public. At least, they are trying to look more open. And so they made this video about the Google Algorithm. Even though they won’t tell you everything about the algorithm it is still a very useful video. Did you for example know they made 500 changes to the algorithm last year alone?