Google’s December Algorithm Changes

Google has announced that it will announce its algorithm changes on a monthly basis.

On December 1st, Google announced that it will provide monthly updates on search changes. This is supposed to compliment its blog posts about major algorithm changes. The latest search changes include the following:

• New parked domain classifier: Google’s search algorithm can now identify and penalise parked domains. These are domains that are used as placeholders and are often filled with ads and add little value for users.

• Detecting original content: Google has added signals that can better identify original content. This is mainly used to penalise site scrapper sites and reward original content.

• Top results selection code re-write: Google has taken back a previous announcement that allowed many results from one site to appear on the first page. Google has re-written this code in order to prevent host crowding.

• Related query results refinements: Google announced that it will ease on its suggestions for search results for “rare” words. This is the case because related queries may be less relevant to the user.

• Result Freshness: Google has announced more changes to ensure the “freshness” of content. They announced a change in blog search and image indexing that will enable for fresh content to appear more often.

• More comprehensive indexing: Google announced that more long-tail documents are now available in its index which makes it more likely for them to rank for relevant queries.

Google is trying to improve the quality and relevance of search results by rewarding original new content. Google is pushing sites to create new fresh content in order to have sites rank well. Google is trying to level the playing field by not allowing one site to dominate the first page. This allows competitors and other sites to appear in search results. In order for brands to rank well, Starcom recommends brands to create original fresh content as Google has announced multiple changes in its algorithm that give preference to fresh content. In addition to this, hosting content on multiple sites can help brands dominate top results. This can be done through the use of Google + Pages and other social media outlets, especially blogs.