Google Algorithm Updates Based on User Experience

Google Algorithm Updates Based on User Experience:

Google has always focused on the searcher experience.

Google has long prioritized user experience, whether in its main algorithmic updates, new features, products, or SERP format changes.

While some of these Google changes have involved updates to target low-quality content, links, and spam, other updates aim to understand consumer behavior and intent.

Given the massive competition from brands for SERP real estate, even slight drops in position will have critical impacts on traffic, revenue, and conversions.

A combination of Google updates and technological advancements significantly reflect the search engine's focus on the human user and their online experiences, from Panda to the page experience.

Google Panda (2011):

Panda has been advertised to target sites with poor quality content;

This was one of the first signs that Google was focusing on content for the user experience.

Produce and optimize unique and compelling content.

Avoid thin content and focus on producing high-quality information.

Measure quality over quantity.

The length of the content is not a significant factor but must contain information that the user needs.

Avoid duplicate content - initially a big concern for e-commerce sites.

Google Hummingbird (2013):

The introduction of the Knowledge Graph came to Hummingbird with an emphasis on semantic research.

Hummingbird was designed to help Google better understand search intent and context.

As users sought to capture queries in a more conversational way, it became essential to optimize the user experience by focusing on content beyond the keyword with a renewed emphasis on the long tail.

This was Google's first indication of using natural language processing (NLP) to identify black hat techniques and create personalized SERP results.

Create and optimize content that audiences want and find useful.

Long-tail keywords and intent model strategies have become crucial.

Content creation had to respond to what users are interested in and would like to learn.

Expand the keyword research to include conceptual and contextual factors.

Avoid keyword stuffing and producing shoddy content to personalize experiences.

Marketers were asked to focus on content that could impact the future happiness, health, financial stability, or security of their readers.

Google's E-A-T guidelines were established to help marketers customize on-page and off-page SEO and content strategies to provide users with an experience with the most relevant content from trusted sources.

Expertise, authority, and confidence.

Making sure websites offer expert and authoritative content that can be trusted

Create content that shows subject matter expertise and knowledge.

Focus on the credibility and authority of websites that publish content.

Improve the overall quality of websites - structure, and security.

Earn off-page press coverage from reputable sites, reviews, testimonials, and expert authors.

Mobile update (2015):

This was the very first time that Google had informed marketers (or a warning, for many) that an update was coming.

Focusing on the mobile user experience was a significant signal reflecting the increasing use of mobile as part of the customer research journey.

Google has made it clear that this update will prioritize mobile-friendly websites over mobile SERPs.

Many more mobile updates followed.

Mobile content and users' mobile site experience.

Focus on design factors like responsive design and mobile page structures.

Improve site navigation so mobile users can quickly find what they need.

Avoid mobile format issues that were different from the desktop experience.

Confirm the websites are optimized for mobile.

Right after the mobile update went live, Google quietly released a quality update.

Websites that have focused on user experience by focusing on quality content and avoiding too much user-generated content.

RankBrain (2015):

Like the Hummingbird and NLP principles mentioned earlier, Google RankBrain was more of an algorithm change.

It gave us an idea of ​​the importance of machine learning in all forms of marketing and technology.

To learn and predict user behavior, RankBrain generated search results based on a better understanding of user intent.

Ensure content reflects user intent and optimize conversational search.

Put more emphasis on creating content that matches user intent.

Make sure all aspects of the SEO technical update (like schema markup, for example).

Google has listed RankBrain as the third most important ranking signal.

Google Mobile-First indexing (2018):

The Mobile-First indexing update is that Google would use the mobile version of a web page for indexing and ranking.

Intended to improve user experience and help users find what they are looking for.

Producing content for mobile and focusing on speed and performance has become paramount for success.

The goal: to reaffirm the importance of mobile optimization, content, speed and performance of the mobile site.

Improve the speed and performance of AMP and mobile pages.

Make sure the URL structures for mobile and desktop sites meet Google requirements.

Add structured data for desktop and mobile versions.

Make sure the mobile site contains the same content as the desktop site.

Google has made mobile page speed a ranking factor so that website owners focus on load times and page speed to improve user experience.

Broad Core Algorithm Updates (2018):

While there has been some confusion over ranking factors and how to resolve specific issues, this has put the concept of EAT and user content at the center of the attention of many SEO professionals and SEO professionals. content marketers.

BERT (2019):

This neural network-based natural language processing method has given Google a better understanding of conversational queries.

BERT makes it easier for users to find useful and accurate information.

Improve understanding of consumer intent through conversational research themes.

Increase the depth and specificity of the content.

Work more with long queries and sentences longer than three words.

Make sure the content answers user questions or queries and is properly optimized.

Focus on writing for humans in a clear and concise manner so that it is easy to understand.

As Google continued to focus on E-A-T signals, the global pandemic meant consumer behavior and search patterns changed forever.

Google began to focus on Money or the Life [YMYL] signals as the internet struggled to cope with misinformation and SEO professionals struggled to keep up with rapid changes and declines in behavior. of consumers.

Updated Google page experience and Core Web Vitals (CVW)

Focusing on a site's technical health and metrics to measure the user experience of a page, metrics include how fast the content on the page is loading, how fast a browser loads a web page can respond to a user's input, and the degree of instability of the content as it loads. the browser.

Integration of new Core Web Vitals metrics to measure and improve on-page experiences.

Mobile Usability, Safe Browsing, HTTPS, and Intrusive Interstitials - The Google Page Experience Signal.

LCP - Largest Content Paint - improves page load times for large images and video backgrounds.

FID - First Input Delay - ensures that the browser responds quickly to a user's first interaction with a page.

CLS - Cumulative Layout Offset - Include size attributes on images and video elements or reserve space with CSS aspect ratio boxes and make sure content is never inserted at- above existing content, except in response to user interaction.

Google is giving people more and more time to prepare for fundamental changes.

Whether it's a basic algorithmic update, a change in SERP layouts, a new feature, or a set of guidelines, Google's continued focus on consumer and behavior. is relentless.

SERP layout changes improve visual and video experiences; penalties are given for not focusing on the end-user.

There have been a lot more updates to the schematic, carousels, and 3-packs to local and vertical upgrades which make for a similar picture. I only gave one a snapshot.