As many of you know, Google is constantly improving their search algorithm. This helps connect users to the most relevant content available online. This is not an easy task for their web developers as it involves ongoing improvements to their ranking algorithm. In 2022 alone there has been 8 updates published by Google.
Page Experience Update for Desktops – 22nd of February 2022
Google started considering desktop page experience as part of the ranking signal. This means the same three website core vitals metrics thresholds will be used for desktop now.
Product Review Update – 23rd March 2022
Product reviews are an important part of the shopping process for many consumers. To better reward high quality product reviews, Google will now benefit eCommerce sites with detail product review pages with insightful analysis and original research on the product.
May Core Update – 25th May 2022
Each year Google makes significant changes to the overall ranking algorithm. There are two main reasons why Google rolls out major core updates.
Firstly, users needs are constantly changing, and Google needs to ensure their algorithm meets users’ needs effectively. Think of it like this. If you made a list of top 100 songs in 2020, the naturally that list would change in 2023. Secondly, technological advancements and user habits data allows Google to provide the most useful content to website visits.
The changes are made across a broad range of ranking factors. These include page experience, page relevance and everything in between. Details of the May Core Update have been limited from Google.
Google have advised website owners to perform manual checks across their websites to ensure the user experience and content aligns to Google best practice. High-quality, user-friendly, relevant content is ultimately what Google rewards most.
2nd Product Reviews Update – 27th July 2022
The purpose of July product review update is to improve the ranking of in-depth product review articles and analysis. Googles aim is to priorities high-quality product review articles over simple product review that simply outline a variety of different articles.
It should be noted that this update affects product review articles and not customer product reviews typically seen on a products page for a particular item.
Helpful Content Update – 25th August 2022
Googles mission is the provide users with the most relevant and reliable information. Googles helpful content update is a step towards rewarding websites that provide high-quality informative articles. Websites that provide information that meets the need of their visitors will perform much better in the search results. In comparison, content that has little value to users will perform poorly.
Google recommends removing any content on their websites that offers little value to visitors.
September 2022 Core Update – 12th September 2022
As mentioned above, Google periodically makes major changes to their search algorithms. These are referred to as core updates. Typically, Google releases, 2 to 3 core updates a year. The September core update was the second major algorithm change in 2022.
Google have stated that there is nothing in the latest core update that targets particular websites or pages. The updates are merely an improve on how Google assess website content on their end.
3rd September Product Review Update – 20th September 2022
In September Google released the third product review update. The initial product review update aimed at rewarding high quality product reviews and analysis. Google haven’t released any additional information about the update or what’s changed from the July product review update. It’s assumed that the changes are simply refinements to the initial updates made in March and July.
Spam Content Update – 19th October 2022
For a long time Googles search algorithm has had the ability to detect spam content. The latest October update has made considerable improvements to the algorithms ability to detect spam content on websites.
Google uses AI to detect website spam that violates their spam policy. Any website that has noticed a decline in website rankings since the October update should review their website content to ensure it aligns to Googles spam policy. It is recommended that any website content that violates the spam policy be removed immediately.
