Friday, January 28, 2022

Google Algorithm Update 2021

 Google Algorithm Update 2021

 

Google Algorithm Update
Google Algorithm Update

What is Google Algorithm Update?

Have You at any point considered how a bit of information is displayed on a browser when You enter keywords in a search engine? There are millions and trillion of data accessible on the net and a tremendous measure of information is added to the data-set the entire day. You as a web user retrieve data-dependent on keywords within a fraction of a second. It's all because of Google Algorithm. An algorithm is a set of specific instructions coded to solve specific and complex problems under the digital computation of computers. Google Algorithm uses many factors like keywords you input, Demography of a user, Quality, relevance, freshness of content, and a web page's usability. Google Algorithm always focused to give a user-friendly experience on web pages by prioritizing rich quality content, faster loading time, the best possible security, and Responsive web pages. To meet high expectations Google Algorithm is designed with high standards. Quality Checkers around the globe review the algorithm under strict guidelines and Google releases updates to evolve the standards of Algorithm Day by Day. The year 2021 was not different and Google rolled out several Algorithm updates to improve the user experience overall.

Knowing the relevant updates will keep you updated in line with SEO and help you to improve ranking by knowing the performance shifts. The 8 most major Google Algorithm Update for 2021 includes:

Passage Ranking

About this Results

 Mobile-First Indexing 

 Product Reviews 

 MUM 

 Link Spam 

Page Experience

Page Titles

PASSAGE RANKING:

Passage ranking is an automated feature Displaying the most relevant content as sections from larger web pages.

Here is an example of passage indexing.

Just assume I wrote an article about Google AdSense. Instead of writing a definition, I wrote detailed content covering a wider area about Google AdSense. If You search for “how to kickstart Google AdSense” Passage Ranking would display relevant sections from the entire blog rather than displaying the whole content.

Google Algorithm Update
Google Algorithm Update - Passage Ranking

How Passage Indexing is useful for Content Creators?

Google Use Neural nets and the BERT algorithm to understand the Content for website ranking. Webpages that are already ranked well may not see huge changes but pages with large and relevant content without proper optimization may see a boost in traffic since passage indexing's tend to display relevant data from larger content depending on the keywords used by users.

I hope you understand how passage indexing works. This update plays a major role and it has a few benefits:

Longer Content on web pages gets a boost

Focus on content useful to netizens rather than giving more importance to Bots' needs.

Passage indexing gives importance to long-tail keywords

Rather than On-Page Optimization, Passage Indexing gives importance to Long Quality Content

 

“About This Result” Update:

What is the “About this Result” Update?

It is an automated feature by Google, improving User-Friendly Experiences. This feature is available for all devices like Desktop, Mobile, tab Browsers, and Google Apps. This feature is accessible by clicking the three dots which appear next to the search result of the result card.

Google Algorithm Update
Google Algorithm Update - About this Result


Clicking the three dots would display extra data and the additional subtleties include:

whether any reference data from Wikipedia is available on the indexed site.

when the site was indexed by Google.

how secure the website is based on security protocols like HTTPS.

displays the language used on a web page.

display websites that are linked to the webpage based on keywords.

This update was delivered to give an insight into the content and security of web pages. This doesn’t have any role in Indexing the web pages under SEO. But as an SEO Specialist make sure to use HTTPS security, proper backlinks, and relevant keywords to the content.

Mobile-First Indexing Update:

Technology has evolved and mobiles have become as powerful as computers. Mobile-First Indexing means Google uses the mobile version of web pages for indexing and ranking.  Web pages were created for desktops in the past, but things have changed when people started using mobiles more than desktops. Till 2019 Mobile-First indexing update was introduced for the new website and it didn’t bother about the older sites. In June 2021 Mobile-First Indexing update was released making the Mobile-first Indexing compulsory for the old as well as the new websites.

Google Algorithm Update
Google Algorithm Update - Mobile first indexing update


Key factors to look for Mobile-First Indexing:

Make a Responsive website focusing on all devices available

For faster loading use compressed videos and images

Always test the mobile sites manually to see the features of desktop works in mobile without a lag

Use Google's Mobile-Friendly Test Tool to see the performance of Mobile Friendliness of websites.

Product Reviews Update:

What is Google Product Review?

Google Product review aims to deliver a good quality review detailing the pros and cons of the product. The only aim of this update is to provide a trustworthy review to the users helping them to decide the product to be purchased.

In summary, Google will display long quality reviews on the top of the result page and short line reviews will be displayed at the bottom. The reviews that detail the specification, usage, pros, and cons of the products will be ranked higher than irrelevant reviews on the web.

Google Algorithm Update
Google Algorithm Update - Product Review Update

Factors Deciding high-quality product review:

Provide videos and images of the product.

Provide multiple links with prices of products helping the viewers decide where to buy from.

Review should be simple, focusing on the user needs in mind

Explain how the product varies from competitors’ and also mention alternative products available.

MUM Update:

Multitask Unified Model (MUM) is an AI language that is more powerful than BERT. This update was released to help viewers get complex answers most simply. When a Netizen enters a complex question on Google Search, MUM gives exact information most simply from multiple dimensions of the SERP. MUM can understand 75 different languages so it can provide answers from various multi-lingual sources.

Imagine You are Planning to visit a place for the first time and searching related questions will make MUM fetch the details from various sites and provide them to us on a single page instead of searching and fetching information from various websites.

Google Algorithm Update
Google Algorithm Update - MUM Update

Tips in SEO perspective:

1. Create rich content with relevant data and Google Mum will add your content to search results.

2. Give a hierarchy to the content using heading tags, proper images, and data and this will make MUM use your data to widen search answers.

Mum is the beginning of something big and in the future, technology and innovation would be taking this MUM algorithm to new heights.

 

Link Spam Update:

On July 26, 2021, Google rolled out Link Spam Update. This Update was rolled to eliminate the Spam links used for Backlink of Websites. This update is going to affect a lot of links that are categorized under Black Hat practices.

As per Google's Statement, the best way to avoid delisting through Link Spam Update is to follow White Hat practices and follow the rules of links spam update. Google also advised tagging the links properly. Affiliate Links, Guest Posting, and Sponsored Links are the links that Google recommended to be properly tagged.

Google Algorithm Update
Google Algorithm Update - Link Spam Update


Use the following tags:

1. Affiliate Links: “rel = sponsored”

2. Guest Posting: “rel = nofollow”

3. Sponsored Links: “rel = sponsored”

Best practices to follow:

1. Avoid promotion by purchasing links and don’t use irrelevant links to your page.

2. Don’t exchange links to bring traffic

3. Always use tags for the links used in your webpage

Page Experience: 

Google always gives priority to user experience so Google introduced Page Experience update and the update can also be called Core Web Vitals.

What is Page Experience Update?

Page Experience Update is all about how friendly a user experiences in using the web page. In simple words Google Algorithm wants Web pages to update and evolve day by day so that user expectations are met across all web browsers and platforms.  This helps the Website companies to increase traffic and business and this also helps the users to interact and engage user-friendly with the website.

Google Algorithm Update
Google Algorithm Update - Page Experience

These Page Experience updates include:

1. LCP – Largest Content Full paint (Faster loading time for the content of a web page.)

2. FID – First Input Delay (Faster Responsiveness to the user’s action on a web page.)

3. CLS – Cumulative Layout Shift (User-Friendly layout of the web page.)

Tips to improve Core Web Vitals:

1. Increase Loading speed and reduce errors

2. Remove ads that block content

3. Compress and optimize videos and images for faster loading

4. Avoid complicated and complex Java Script

5. Reduce Server Response time

6. Compare Website with Competitors

7. Always analyze and update the design of the web page

8. Use relevant Heading Tags and proper dimensions for images

 

Page Titles:  

As you, all know Title tags show the hierarchy of a webpage and help the viewers to understand what the web page is all about. Though title tags <h1> to <h6> plays a major role in SEO, <h1>and <h2> tags are the main one’s bots and crawlers considers to understand what the web page is all about. 

What is Page Title Update?

Since 2012 there were rare instances where Google used to alter the title tags in SERPs. But on August 25, 2021, Google introduced Page Title Updates and this brought a major rewriting in Title Tags for the articles or websites appearing in SERPS. Now Google started using any text available on the same webpage to make title tags based on Search Queries. Google also revealed anchor text within links can also be used as title tags that point to the web page.

Google Algorithm Update
Google Algorithm Update - Page Title Update

If you ask whether this update will affect the SERP ranking the answer would be a big “No”, but this can indirectly affect the Customer traffic to the website. When a customer searches query and when Google Rewrites the title tag that doesn’t match the content of the website there are chances for viewers to avoid visiting the web page and this may also increase the bounce rate. Since this update is in the early stage, we can see further updates rolling out bringing more improved changes.

These are the 8 core updates for the year 2021. Google Algorithm is evolving Day by Day and in the future, we can see wonders in web user experience. Always keep up-to-date with SEO and Google Algorithm if You want to be a Digital Marketing Expert. Keep checking my blog for more articles and updates about Digital Marketing.

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