Google algorithms: the animals in charge of search results
Google algorithms: the animals in charge of search results
Google algorithms: the animals in charge of search results. Google decided to be the first search engine we turned to every time we needed to know about anything!
This is where our friends Google algorithms come in and discard 99.999999999999% of answers that are useless and the remaining 0.000000000001%, which could be useful, organize them into pages with nine results each, and reach the top positions It is a great objective of Digital Marketing professionals.
It looks like something from a science fiction movie that talks about the future, but it’s actually from the 9th century, the algorithm was born in Arabia. Basically, the algorithm is a calculation system that manages to solve a numerical problem in some stages. For example, our numerical problem is that we have 2:578,984,012 answers for a single question, reading all that would take us a lifetime and our boss asked us for the information in 15 minutes from now.
All this by crossing data in a mathematical equation, which progressively reduces the number of responses, adapting them to the Internet user who asked the question.
A calculation of this dimension in Arabia in the 9th century was extremely fast, they solved it in three or four weeks.
Luckily today our friends perform millions of calculations of this type, at the same time, in less than a second. This kind of thing only happens in the fantastic world of the internet.
Let’s start again
If you remember Altavista as well as I do, let me tell you that… we are old.
I don’t think today’s kids can even imagine a life without Google and without its optimal performance to find the information just as they need it.
Well, a few decades ago, Google decided to be the first search engine we turned to every time we needed to know about anything!
What’s more, it is not enough but to press the “G” key in the browser, so that it suggests us to enter Google; that is if it is not already determined as the home page.
Google has become an important factor in our daily lives, thanks to the fact that we have the need to always be looking for new information of any kind or to verify what we already have.
The challenge that Google decided to take on led it to see that users were becoming more and more demanding and wanted more agile results, with higher quality and accuracy. So it didn’t take long for him to start creating systems like algorithms that would allow him to give users all of that.
What a task he gave us, the creators of the information, too! Because now, Google’s algorithms require us to be aware in all areas such as our businesses, search engines, users, texts, creativity, relevance and all at the same time. Simply put, he gave us the task to pay off .
But don’t panic! It’s not that complex to achieve either. It is enough to be aware of the algorithms and apply their demands, to do better what we like to do in itself: provide quality information that solves the problems of our people.
Read on to learn about these algorithms.
Do you know what algorithms are?
Surely you thought of those numerical programming frameworks. Well, that’s algorithms! Adding that they are also sequences that represent solution models.
To be more specific, as far as Google is concerned, algorithms are the tools it uses to determine where your website will appear in search results.
According to Google, as such, algorithms are ” formulas and computer processes that take questions and turn them into answers, based on more than 200 signals ” and data structures, where elements such as the terms used by the user are combined, for the website, due to the actuality of the content, both the region of the person and that of the issuer of the information, SEO and Pagerank.
It is not an easy task, because there are millions of pages with useful information, therefore, Google has had to stop thinking like a robot, and think humanly. Crazy right?
What happens is that he understood that people do not like to waste their time, and certainly, going from page to page looking for the correct information takes time and, since Google is interested in preserving its users, he turned this time into happiness for they.
But, it should be noted that just as it cares about users, it is astute to evade the comfort of issuers. That is to say, with each algorithm that it launches, the pages are prepared to meet the requirements, but since bad intentions are not lacking, Google began to constantly change the algorithms to also combat the techniques that are not allowed, called black hat .
There are many Google algorithms, however, here we will present the most peculiar: The animals that are in charge of selecting the search results.
Google animals
When I think of algorithms, I imagine thousands of numerical formulas that, to be honest, I can’t read. But Google is certainly very cool, and because it knows that many of us don’t understand programming terms, it decided to make them animals.
Yes, animals that appear friendly on the surface, but have no remorse in penalizing us in case of violating their regulations.
From them we can know its basic operation and its main objectives to make Google a better site and a better search engine, however, keeping track of each one is quite a difficult task. Well, they change more than 500 times a year.
Next, let’s take a look at what these little animals in charge of monitoring search performance are based on, so that we know at least what we need to sympathize with them.
Google Panda
Panda’s algorithm was launched in the United States in February 2011 and it didn’t take long for it to spread around the world. With its removal, it affected more than 12% of search results.
How?
Based on the analysis of the quality of the sites and penalizing those with copied, translated or low-quality content that did not contribute anything to users and that were well positioned.
What is Panda up to?
Easy! Generate quality content that adds value to people. And this is achieved:
- Keeping your page updated
- Looking for ways to enrich your content
- Controlling others from copying your content
The latter is certainly very complex. Therefore, you should try to index your content before your competition does. Well, Google Panda does not need to consider your content as a copy, even though it is the original. Has passed.
To consider
Google Panda takes into account:
- bounce rate
- CTR in search results
- Dwell time
- Number of visits
Similarly, think about who your audience is and what they need when you make your content. Take care of the spelling and make use of keywords, but do not sound forced into the text, or repetitive.
Nothing better than naturalness.
In this article on the main factor of SEO, we will tell you in greater depth, how to handle these points that we have just mentioned.
What affects Panda
- The ranking of an entire site
- In a specific section of the site or blog
- Very short content that does not contribute to the user
- bad writing
What to do to avoid the Panda penalty
As a tip, make your content fun to read. Use quotes, images, videos, infographics, any type of resource that you consider to make reading enjoyable and informative.
Do not believe content without strategy. Detect the needs of your user and satisfy them with information.
And, if for some reason you feel that Panda may be penalizing you, you can check the status of your site and pages inside.
This site also serves to verify the situation of your content according to the evaluation parameters of Google Penguin.
Google Penguin
Google Penguin, or Penguin, emerged in April 2012. The launch of this algorithm managed to affect sites that tried to manipulate positioning through artificial links in 3.1% of queries in English.
So then, Penguin is based on avoiding low quality links. His proposal is to suggest that we have natural links on our sites that the user also wants to enter and share.
The selection strategy consists of promoting healthy link building , using links from other sites that really provide necessary information and value to people.
In case you pay to appear on other sites, Penguin also advises that they be places where the public wants to find you. Otherwise, you will be penalized.
What to do to potentiate social link building ?
First of all, it is valid to adopt as a premise: Quality must be greater than quantity.
Google Penguin focuses on off-site factors, which is why it is so important for this algorithm that you create valuable relationships with other blogs or sites.
Of course, it is not about getting a large number of links that do not contribute anything to your user. Google Penguin has its sights on this. It is better to focus on building good links, even if they are few.
In order to build relationships:
- Add buttons on social networks. So people can share your content
- Create communities on social networks, for example
- Promote the contents
It is important to verify this information, not only because you may fall into this bad habit, but also because you may become a victim of it.
Google Hummingbird
Google Hummingbird or the hummingbird, is the name of the platform that Google launched in September 2013.
The name of the algorithm refers to the precision and speed with which the meaning behind the words in a search is interpreted.
In this case, the hummingbird does not penalize the sites , but it does rank and favor them based on the intentions behind the keywords used by the informant and the user’s need to know.
So what is it based on?
By reading the context.
Can a robot do this?
To a large extent, people build their searches using phrases that transcend the mere typing of the keyword. That is, now Google understands variables such as where, what and how , in the company of a phrase that does not necessarily contain the keyword, but synonyms.
Google Pigeon
Google Pigeon or pigeon, is an algorithm that was launched in July 2014. Like the hummingbird, Google Pigeon does not penalize, however, it organizes searches focusing on relevance to geography.
Search positioning parameters
- Distance
- The ubication
From the user regarding your business, of course.
The pigeon organizes the results when the user’s searches focus on food or services, for example. The positioning made by the algorithm depends on the record you have in Google maps.
Google Pigeon gives users maps with multiple business points, close to their geographic location.
In summary
- Panda focuses on the quality of the sites. Observe the content, how it is displayed and if it offers value to the user.
He has a kind of obsession with the quality of the texts, he does not like to be copied nor does he tolerate bad spelling. Anyway… watch out for the Panda! Where you are, in what you do; the Panda is watching you!
- Penguin look for spam and links inside and outside the site that do not contribute anything to the user.
According to comments, before working for Google he trained the penguins of Madagascar. He is a relentless detective who hunts down the infamous BlackHats gang who falsely increase the metrics of his domains. It’s not that he’s a moralist, he simply had to do that job and he’s kind of a vigilante, he doesn’t like or accept that the user’s space is invaded. With that he is very rigorous, if he finds out he penalizes you. Penguin knows what you did last summer.
- Colibrí evaluates the searches and orders them according to what is relevant to the context that the user has in mind.
It is perhaps the female part, instead of looking for problems and punishing people, it tries to understand the user’s conversation in order to give them the most specific answers possible. In other words, it filters based on the history of the Internet user’s interests. The Hummingbird sees beyond words, in places where most speak before listening, the Hummingbird exercises semantics, the art of understanding what is being said. Imagine what the world would be like if it were only to control and penalize. Luckily there is the Hummingbird!
- Paloma brings the results that have to do with geographic location.
Surely the scientific thinking of the group, the Dove has an elevated vision of things, knows perfectly the location and distance. Without him the other three would be an aimless bomb of emotions. The Dove is the ground wire, the point of contact between the real user and the virtual user in a specific geographic coordinate. They have great sushi in Hong Kong but it’s on the other side of the planet, La Paloma knows the top ten Japanese restaurants within a mile of your house.
The 5th element
Launched last year and starting to become part of the user experience routine. The Owl, like the wisdom it represents, deals with a holistic reading and prevents the unpleasant from creeping in.
It is more than an intelligence, it is an artificial wisdom that integrates what is interesting with what is appropriate. He is a fair judge and also penalizes.
Their main job is to increase the quality and authority of the content . What is false, what is deceitful, what it claims to be but is not, what is invasive and inopportune have no place before his eyes. And it doesn’t just look for them, it also offers feedback forms to guide its work. It makes it easy to report such situations.
The Panda tells you the rebounds, the Penguin watches you all day, the Hummingbird puts himself in your place, the Dove tells you the coordinates and the Owl ties all the ends together. Together they monitor and influence the position of a web page in Google results.
Other algorithms
We focus, this time, on talking about the animals that Google uses to refer to 4 of its algorithms, however, Google has others such as:
- Caffeine: Started in 2010 and is responsible for offering a faster indexing of information to yield results.
- Freshness Update: An update from 2011 that began to give importance to the relevance of content.
- Query encryption: in 2011 Google began to encrypt searches, that is, to hide data using keys. The term not provided was born there, which warns users of unsafe spaces.
Mobile – friendly
Mobile devices have become an authority in the world of possibilities.
In the past, the computer stayed at home and was like a relic that we took care of. That’s where the system installed in the cell phone arrived and there we are now, with our (mini) computers jumping from here to there without any fear of breaking.
We don’t know which one, if the Panda, the Penguin, the Hummingbird, the Dove or the Owl, or perhaps another more low profile trio that they are:
- Caffeine that monitors indexing
- Freshness Update: which scores the currency of the content
- Query encryption: that works with cryptography and alerts users to unsafe spaces.
In short, we do not know which of them, perhaps all of them, monitors the adaptability of your page to mobile devices. That is why you must always be alert because the search engines find you, and the algorithms are constantly being updated, for example, the panda has already had more than 30 and the Penguin 7 updates, between confirmed and unconfirmed.
Conclusion
As mentioned above, Google constantly makes changes to its algorithms and does not notify users of such updates. They just happen gradually.
That is why I recommend you to be aware of your positioning using the tools, Google Analytics, for example. There is nothing to fear if you have the information!
And remember, as a last piece of advice, the key is not only to please the Google algorithms, or the Google animals in this case, but, and more importantly, you must be valuable to your users. Ultimately, they are the ones who will determine if what you are granting is of quality and responds to their needs.
If you have any questions, leave it in the comments and we will help you solve it. Share this article on social media, see you in the next post!
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