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What is the definition of the Google algorithm?
Understanding the Google algorithm for SEO might appear complex.
Let us first try to under what is an algorithm?
The algorithm as per the standard definition it is “Set of rules for solving a problem in a given number of steps“
It is a computer program, programmed to perform a certain set of actions. Is called an algorithm.
Now Try to understand Google algorithm.
Google is a search engine; so it means if you enter any keyword or sentence in the google then google will give you answer in the form of results( also called as SERP: search engine result pages)
So, for google to give answers to your query, google first need to understand what you are asking, and then it has to go and find the answer from its database and show your results on the screen.
This whole process has to be done by a machine or in simple words a program or algorithm.
Google has a very complex algorithm for serving search results, and it changes relatively frequently. Google never make their algorithm public, but here are some elements which are taken into consideration by google for showing the results to us for certain keywords:
- The keyword’s appearance in the page’s title, header tags, and meta description
- The amount of naturally-occurring, organic links to the page
- The way the website performs on mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets
Of course, these are just some of the characteristics of the Google algorithm, there are many more.5 adorable Google algorithm updates that every SEO should know are given.
How does the new Google algorithm work?
A search algorithm is an exceptional formula that a web crawler uses to recover explicit data stored inside a data structure and decide the importance of a web page and its substance. Search algorithms are unique to their search engine and decide web index result rankings of web pages.
To be very effective, the search engine needs to understand what kind of information, it can present to the user. The search engine accomplishes its work in three stages: Crawling, Indexing, and Ranking.
here are 5 adorable Google algorithm updates that every SEO should know are as follows.
1.Crawling:
Google crawls the website using a bit of code, that is called a “spider” or “crawlers”. It is an automated process. Crawlers travel the web, from one link to another link, it crawls one page to another page. Each page it lands on is copied and pasted it to the server.
Google crawlers are working in a very specific way, from one link to another on the web. So that it discovers the new pages.
If any pages are not linked, that page would not be indexed by the Google search engine. When any new domain enlisted, the crawler first looks for – robot.txt file on the root folder of the server.
Keywords also play a vital role in the search engine. The search engine lists the pages, that contain the same keywords in the search query. Google looks for keywords throughout the web page.
Sometimes keywords in the heading help the search engine to find the web page. Although Keywords in larger heading helps more than the shorter heading. Many people recommend regularly using keywords throughout the web page.
2. Indexing:
When you have a large amount of content, it is always needed to sort out. Google can’t have a big database, which they sort out whenever any query is entered. It will be very slow. Instead, they create Index which essentially shortcuts the process.
The search engine uses the technology for this and queries the data very quickly. Searching for the data is quicker than searching for the entire content.
Common words like ‘or’, ‘and’, ‘the’ are not stored by search engines, it is called stop words. Maybe it looks like very small words, but on the search engine, dealing with the billion pages, it is an important consideration.
To better understand how the search engine algorithm works, we bifurcate it many subparts.
Query Meaning and autocomplete:
When someone searches for anything, Google can automatically predefine it and shows the result immediately. It determines the intent of users. Google can predefine its past usage searches and behavior. Google instant autocompletes it and shows the many results with that particular key phrase and solves the query.
Web page relevancy:
Once Google determines the intent of the search query, at that moment they review the webpages and started to show the most relevant one.
In this case, keywords play a most dignified role. The keyword helps to search the most prominent result for that search query. Keywords help Google to understand what user search query is.
Content Quality:
With keywords research, it takes one step further and reviews the quality of the content of the web pages.
Usability:
Google wants content which displays on the search engine, it looks attractive to human as well as search engine robots too. There is a set of metrics that looks into these methods.
Apart from this, page speed is also an important factor. If the page speed creates annoyance, it is not good for website usability. Google wants people to use their search engine, in that case, to show their interest it loads fast.
Context:
Your information matters. Search algorithm counts on your data like previous search, your interest, your location. It helps to give the relevant content for the specific interest or specific location.
3. Ranking:
In the final step, search engines sort through the different information and return the right results for a search query. The search Algorithm helps them to do this. it defines which content is most searched for and which are most relevant to show as the result of the search query.
The algorithm uses many factors to define the quality of the pages on the search engine. Many factors used in this algorithm like content, page rank, and the freshness.
To confirm the Algorithm is doing their job properly. Sometimes, Google uses the Human Search Quality Raters to test the algorithm. This is one of the few times when humans are doing this job instead of the algorithm.
Some Common Terms to know
Snippet:
It is a graph of knowledge. Google represents specific information from SERP that people won’t leave from search pages. It makes it easy to review the users.
SafeSearch
is a feature in Google Search and Images that acts as an automated filter of potentially offensive and inappropriate content.
Google now gives a feature to advanced search which allows a user to specify additional requirements of the search. When used for searching the web, an advanced search gives additional information to Google which helps refine the search.
Images and voice search
On Google, we can search our query by images and voice search. Therefore many times Google shows the result on the respective of the synonyms of particular keywords.
Mobile Optimized Results
Side by side the algorithm is developing for mobile devices too. Although when you are searching for something from a mobile device, it will give you different results than if you are searching from a desktop computer. It is not just because of device types, many times it shows the different results for using different terms.
Localized searches are different.
Many times you can also optimize the mixed media searches such as Google shows video or images as a search result. Some results are a very narrow set of term., mainly it is current news like games or politics.
Search Algorithm works as taking a large number of formulas and Algorithms, each has different purposes and own tasks. There are algorithms to justify this aspect of the search engine and know the user intent and user interaction. Algorithms count on contents, URLs, Internal links, and outer links. Besides that, take your time and optimizing your website through your content with keywords, meta tags, etc.
Where to get a list of all the algorithm updates from Google?
The best place to find the list of all the Google algorithm updated here: https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change
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