I guess Google is sick of me asking them about their search algorithm updates because they posted a long Twitter rant/stream on how they communicate updates. Danny Sullivan on the @searchliaison account posted when and why they communicate about updates, how many updates they do, what it means to you and what you can or cannot do about them.
In Danny Sullivan style, he wrote "Here's an update about updates -- updates to our search algorithms."
Here’s an update about updates -- updates to our search algorithms. As explained before, each day, Google usually releases one or more changes designed to improve our results. Most have little noticeable change but help us continue to incrementally improve search….
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) October 11, 2018
You can see, this is his introduction to talking about updates. Google does algorithm updates to improve their search results. Most of these updates go unnoticed by most people but provide small and incremental improves to search quality.
Also, Google is saying they do about one search ranking update per day on average? True?
Sometimes, an update may be more noticeable. We aim to confirm those when we feel there is actionable information that content owners might take. For example, when our Speed Update happened, with gave months of advanced notice and advice….https://t.co/Nwi8I9rooP
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) October 11, 2018
Google gives tips and advice on updates that are "more noticeable." The funny thing with these types of updates, they rarely have a big impact. The Speed update didn't seem to impact the search results much, at least for those that watch the results. The mobile-first indexing also didn't, or at least shouldn't, because Google wants that to be quality neutral. A lot of these preannounced updates have little impact, maybe that is because they were pre-announced and thus we took action to prepare for them. But you get my point.
Sometimes, we make broad changes to our core algorithm. We inform about those because the actionable advice is that there is nothing in particular to “fix,” and we don’t want content owners to mistakenly try to change things that aren’t issues…. https://t.co/ohdP8vDatr
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) October 11, 2018
We the core updates, that we cover a lot here, Google will confirm some of them but offer no actionable advice or fixes. Again, nothing new here, just same old, there is nothing to fix. I get why Google says this but hey.
This year, we shared about two broad core algorithm updates we had: in April and August. We also had a further update we can confirm, one that began the week of Sept. 24. With any broad core update, the full rollout time might be over the course of a week or longer….
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) October 11, 2018
Yep, Google confirmed September 27th and August 1st and the one in April.
Google is saying, or hinting here, maybe the fluctuations we are seeing over September is the "full rollout time" that can take a "week or longer." Who knows?
We understand those who do less well after a core update change may still feel they need to do something. We suggest focusing on ensuring you’re offering the best content you can. That’s what our algorithms seek to reward….
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) October 11, 2018
Same old advice.
For advice on great content, a good starting point is to review our search quality rater guidelines. Raters are people who give us feedback on if our algorithms seem to be providing good results, a way to help confirm our changes are working well….https://t.co/bVOAoKgDP2
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) October 11, 2018
Same old advice.
Important: search raters have no control over how pages rank. Rater data is not used in our algorithms. Rather, we use them as a restaurant might get feedback cards from diners. The feedback helps us know if our search “recipes” seem to be working….https://t.co/bVOAoKgDP2
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) October 11, 2018
Yep, got it. You explain that every time, as you should.
If you understand how raters learn to assess good content, that might help you improve your own content -- and, in turn, perhaps do better in search. You can find the raters guidelines here:https://t.co/MDdKOyEjrv
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) October 11, 2018
Same old advice.
You’ll also find plenty of advice about good content with the resources we offer from @googlewmc -- from guidelines, to help pages and our forums. Learn more here: https://t.co/lHh8WjGfWL
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) October 11, 2018
Same old...
Anyway, did you get anything new out of this "update on updates."
Forum discussion at Twitter.
