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Yesterday, Google's Matt Cutts did something he doesn't often do - he pre-announced changes Google will be implementing to the ranking and indexing algorithms in the next few months. Specifically, he mentioned about ten changes coming to Google's search results and algorithms over this summer - in the "next few months" he said.
Of course, Matt, Google's head of search spam, adds a disclaimer that timelines and priorities may change between now and then - but this is what is scheduled currently.
Here is the video:
Now, I go into detail on each of the ten points at Search Engine Land but here is the summary of those details:
- Major Penguin Update
- Advertorial Spam
- Spammy Queries Being Looked At
- Going Upstream At Link Spammers
- More Sophisticated Link Analysis
- Improvements On Hacked Sites
- Authority Boost In Algorithm
- Panda To Soften
- Domain Clusters In SERPs
- Improved Webmaster Communication
Since I will be offline the next two days, I may do more detailed scheduled blog posts about each one of these. For now, read Search Engine Land and watch Matt's video.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld & Hacker News.
Comments:
Josh
05/14/2013 02:29 pm
Boy, he really want's to keep Google as the default search on FireFox.
ethalon
05/14/2013 02:46 pm
I don't think he has anything to worry about considering Google is far and away the best search engine out there right now. Can you think of a better search engine for Firefox to default to?
Stephane Brault
05/14/2013 03:08 pm
The best or the less worst?
Justin Clark
05/14/2013 03:21 pm
Google you are going to ruined yourself. Stop-it other wise you will be confused as what is wrong or right.
Abhishek jain
05/14/2013 03:57 pm
Google is playing mind games
newyorker_1
05/14/2013 04:34 pm
in the niche of graphic design scrapers own Google. Actually scrapers and thieves of original content have so much authority they outrank premium sites like Shutterstock on their own content. That's equivalent of Hero Turko or Pirate Bay ranking no.1. for "Transformers movie" keyword. That's how bad it is right now in Google in this niche. It's totally screwed up and I would actually say that Google is worst right now in this niche. Check Bing, there are no Pirate Bays there fopr any keyword. I can't speak of other niches but I could bet there are others with same problems.
Dan Kern
05/14/2013 06:55 pm
I didn't catch the "Panda to soften" part...what's that about? Not docking websites for internal search result URLs or tag page URLs being indexed?
Frederick Gimino
05/14/2013 07:43 pm
Boy! What was that? Penalizing Firefox. Why? What is the point? They are not web spammers? Another agenda? Oh, that's right the Mozilla Os community was cutting into their profit margins...duh.
Frederick Gimino
05/14/2013 07:49 pm
Matt Cutts is a good guy...I really like him. I think he is personable and a genius. It is unfortunate that he gets hit with the majority of the backlash from these updates. I feel he honestly believes, in his cause. I just think others like Eric Schmidt have more insidious agendas. A real shame that this really nice guy who has true values and good intentions gets blasted for the ulterior motifs driving the company he works at. Thanks for the heads up Matt.
Mike Kalil
05/14/2013 08:07 pm
He's a spokesman. It comes with the territory.
F Cutts
05/14/2013 08:08 pm
He's not a nice guy, he's a hired whore, a paid mercenary. He's as guilty as others, if not more. Google wants to bankrupt non-advertisers with all these updates.
mathew
05/14/2013 08:31 pm
wait wait wait...is he wearing a Firefox T-Shirt
mathew
05/14/2013 08:34 pm
Is the first 45 seconds in reference to Google now paying attention to social networking signals? Or can somebody kindly spell out for me what he means
mathew
05/14/2013 08:38 pm
I'm switching from Chrome as we speak!
mathew
05/14/2013 08:42 pm
What you should do Mr Cutts is start penalizing all of the MASSIVE sites that did nothing but black hat SEO to get there years ago, but they are so big now that they managed to get a great amount of natural links before you arrived with penguin. How about that!
mathew
05/14/2013 08:43 pm
Then it would become interesting wouldn't it just...I might actually have a chance in a fair fight
mathew
05/14/2013 08:53 pm
Don't waste your time on worrying about queries several pages back, Mr Cutts, nobody visits there anyway...I know because that's where I sit!!!
zawadi
05/14/2013 09:21 pm
would be great if they got rid of rating websites on top results. Example.. "is google.com safe?" dozens of these scripts popping up
sestuff
05/14/2013 11:24 pm
I don't think Google is as great as people think they are. It's just that we are used to Google so we are sort of trained to use Google. If Google is so great, why do Russians prefer to search Yandex? It's all about which search engine you get used to IMO. Since getting fed up with Google, I have been using Bing more and when I can't find something in Bing, I always get this feeling that Google would turn up better results... Only after trying the same query in Google, do I realize that I can't find what I am looking for on Google either. I actually did a test on Google yesterday for something and since I haven't been using their SE as much lately, I can say that I was disappointed with the results. IMO they are providing really crappy results on some queries because too many relevant pages are being marked as "spam". Honestly, I think they need to ease up with the sitewide filters already. I also don't think we need more of an "authority" boost. IMO Google uses authority a little too much as is.
Mark Platt
05/15/2013 01:20 am
Great information, we appreciate all your knowledge.
saqib
05/15/2013 01:25 am
Nice! One But really a Firefox T-shirt :)
Anti-SEO
05/15/2013 01:40 am
You see, an average searcher doesn't see big difference between Google and Bing. One query is better in Google, another - in Bing. Both use the same base for the algo and almost same signals. The recipes of the SE-soups are a bit different. But that's it. It means, that there can't be real competition between them. Only SE with totally new approach can really compete and bring something new. But it requires huge investments and I never heard about big players work on this.
MegriSoft
05/15/2013 03:10 am
Every Body know that lot of changes will be there and YOU all need is bad link removal
efoghorjoseph
05/15/2013 03:24 am
Whatever happens, there would always be gainers and losers. But Google must ensure legitimate sites are filtered out and not unduly punished.
sestuff
05/15/2013 03:25 am
This is true. Though, if you really think about it, not even Google is investing a huge percentage of profits into development. Panda and Penguin are just patches and is in no way breakthrough technology IMO. This is why the algo continues to get abused. Of course Google may also be trying to play it safe. For example, they could screw everything up with some breakthrough technology. I think this is why you don't see too many huge companies looking to dump a large sum of money into the research and development of a new SE. It's trial and error and if you fail you lose it all. Google can somewhat afford to play because they have it all, but they know they can lose it all...
Justin Clark
05/15/2013 04:40 am
Major Penguin Update:- major hammer on link builders Advertorial Spam:-obviously Promoting for own paid campaign Spammy Queries Being Looked At:- Not spammy but destroyed all small or start-up business.
Alan Smith
05/15/2013 05:20 am
Lots of businesses will be go up or down after this update :)
Kenneth
05/15/2013 07:49 am
Well, this is a very useful information again for us SEO's to be always of what going on on Google's search engine algorithm updates.. Well, I hope Google wont look up my client's website as spam because I always make sure I'm doing clean SEO.. :-)
Brian Mease
05/15/2013 08:53 am
Google should invest more time in the niche you are referring but instead they invest in making more money from niches that pays for ppc IMO. Its all about money
newyorker_1
05/15/2013 11:01 am
I don't think they work niche by niche. It's one algo for everybody and it's screwed up big time. Everything is upside down, scrapers and black hat seo tactics work while genuine content providers take a hit. I've got it all documented with screenshots for this particular niche so I know what I am talking about.
Rajendra Seo
05/15/2013 11:16 am
Hi Matt Cutts this is really nice that you pre announced about google algo n else. We always prefer white seo to our clients to give them good ranking and it will not be affected by any spam and content violation. We at " DMCD" always teach our students only good seo to bright their career and also benefited to our clients sites. "Pay less Rank high" - our slogan for clients "Pay less learn right" - our slogan for students. Contact me +91-7503856451
Suresh
05/15/2013 11:51 am
Google panda is Google business development tools I can say Google panda is Google business development tools. From January 2013 Google update panda focusing only their increase business revenue. If you are looking the current search results Google providing, there is no quality. Maximum sites is repeating in search, you get only 10% perfect result out of 100’s result. Why Google Coming with Panda Updation? Google pushing Google Adsense, they indirectly say’s to the website owners to giving the ads otherwise your site are not getting any result. I have one site its not more than 250 incoming links all they are very quality links. Google manually blocked my site because it’s coming in top 10 in some major key words in SERs. I request several times to Google but again and again they say “Site is not under the quality guidance”. For the trail base I give this site one of the top SEO companies Google recommending, but they are saying “We do not understand why Google blocked your site”.
Susanna Miles
05/15/2013 12:31 pm
It all sounds great and I don't doubt that they have excellent intentions, but I'm skeptical. I've just found that their algorithm can be VERY wrong in some cases. I guess it has always had its problems (spammers getting top rankings wasn't exactly good either). But, when I see big brand site ranking for something really specific like "orange gerbera wedding bouquet" and their page is about "bouquets" (without a single example of an orange gerbara bouquet) I get really annoyed. Especially since I might have a perfectly good page that would satisfy the searches query perfectly. (Note: that's just an example. I don't have a page on orange gerbara wedding bouquets nor have I searched for it). Smaller sites do rank occasionally, I just find that it is really rare since the Penguin release last year. Luckily we have other options (pinterest, facebook, etc). I'm just afraid of what these releases will do with Pinterest results in google. I don't imagine they're liking that very much!?
Justin Clark
05/15/2013 12:58 pm
Now Google is totally confused to show the accurate result. since Google has started the updates it is unable to provide right result query in the search. showing either repeated result or those websites which re useless or not worthy. Mutt stop the experiments with Google.
Anti-SEO
05/15/2013 01:00 pm
This is because they turned from relevancy in search to searchers behavior. Brand's websites have more return visitors and buzz just because they are brands. Not because they are better. Idea seems to be logic : more people return - the better is website. But this is an "academic" approach and the internet is the "street". One must live "on street" to understand the "street law". I suppose, that Amit Singhal, who is responsible for the Panda, doesn't use internet on the "street" level. He thinks this an "academic" society. This is very deep mistake.
Scott Kahle
05/15/2013 02:21 pm
He's about like Jay Carney, our whitehouse liar in chief
Scott Kahle
05/15/2013 02:23 pm
Bing works for me. I really don't see the difference
JIMMY
05/15/2013 03:04 pm
.
Scott Kahle
05/15/2013 03:35 pm
Maybe we should just forget about Google all together. Who cares what they do. Screw 'em. Remember old fashion advertising? It still works. I used to think internet marketing was a lot more efficient (cheaper), but really, with what it takes to TRY to rank even half way decently, the costs are HUGE! An PPC? Forget about it!!! I have wasted so much money on Adwords it makes me sick. The conversion rates are half that of organic and the bid costs have gone through the roof, thanks once again to Big Brands. I don't think I want to give any more of my money to the Big G anyway. The internet started out as being a somewhat level playing field, allowing small businesses to operate beyond their economically depressed geography. It allowed them to provide for their families. Not anymore. BIG business is once again pushing us all out of the market and the consumer is left with less choice and higher prices. In the "bricks and mortar world", it is hard to compete with big box stores. Then came the internet, where a small operator CAN compete and offer lower prices to the consumer and still be profitable. And then there are the niche products that no one wants to carry because they can't sell more than a few units a year to the local market. Consumers have come to realize this and frequently search the internet for something different than what they already know is available; i.e. the Big Brands. Everybody already knows about them, they don't need to be "Put" on the first page. And Google talks about "user experience"? What a joke!!!
CandleFOREX
05/15/2013 05:32 pm
Its pointless putting your phone number up here and saying "contact me". Why would Matt even bother wasting his time contacting or calling you?
me Gorge
05/15/2013 07:20 pm
Google never do anything for free, if they need to do an algorithm update that because this one doesn't work for them, they are loosing money somewhere... The only things I know for sure that since Panda we have NO "Hotel Website" on top of google :( only 1000 of TripAdvisor page(sssss) >>>disgusting
Reg Charie
05/15/2013 09:24 pm
Susanna, if you are going to quote something as not being found, you REALLY should do the search first. If your site is not ranking, then you have not done your SEO correctly.
Reg Charie
05/15/2013 09:25 pm
"This is because they turned from relevancy in search to searchers behavior." 100% false. Everything they do is keyed to relevance.
Parthipan Paramasivam
05/16/2013 04:40 am
Suresh, I agree with you... Google seems to be ranking/giving importance to those who having more # of pages with Adsense. Since Adsense is a biggest revenue generation business tool for G.
Parthipan Paramasivam
05/16/2013 04:52 am
Penguin: I'm eagerly waiting for upcoming penguin update to see the impact on paid link building websites which I've in my list. Panda: Why needs to soften the Panda if they (G) really did a good job. Domain Clusters: Yes, G should stop showing results with same domains multiple times. There are more other quality websites which are really needs to be ranked on top.
mathew
05/16/2013 06:54 am
I find the same thing. I see sites ahead of me for a query that is not even on the same topic, but my result would have suited perfectly. I also notice I rank sometimes for things I shouldn't, but it is because I do have content on my site with those words somewhere. This is how Google works now.
mathew
05/16/2013 06:55 am
It's silly
Media3
05/16/2013 07:47 am
Thanks for the information
Web Development Company
05/16/2013 09:58 am
Now Ready for new changes after few days...
soman
05/17/2013 05:40 am
Why he wearing mozilla instead of google chrome in tshirt?? Can any one noticed this? Is google going to acquire mozilla too?
Lakhwinder
05/17/2013 01:18 pm
Whatever the update will be , Only SEOs will get frustrated from clients.
VSK
05/17/2013 02:07 pm
We are waiting. But Do Favour of those not using without Paid seo encourage the without paying any sites and doing seo for coming up.....?
Pepper
05/18/2013 10:28 pm
Couldn't agree more. And it's like they don't have a strategy for local businesses. I build websites for clients and they ask "What do I need to do be at the top of Google." As soon I begin to explain, I can see I'm overwhelming them. The sad thing is even if they do everything right according to all the WebmasterTools Videos on YouTube, they still won't outrank crap sites.
mike
05/27/2013 03:15 pm
The Google search engine has become a Google AdWords engine. The results take up over 65% of the area 'above the fold' and part of the time the results aren't relevant. Relevant results that rank well in natural search due to black hat techniques are considered bad but non-relevant results due to increased bidding in AdWords is okay as long as you are bribing Google.
Scott
06/06/2013 06:18 pm
I can see a conversation like this at Google a few years ago. Guy "Hey Google I noticed some spammy sites here, here are the URLs why don't you knock them off the web." Google "Yeah Ok , what we are going to do here since we are an elite group of programmers is make an algorithm that will make it impossible to exist." Guy "Well here is a list why don't you just knock them out" Google "Well we will but we are going to knock them all out with some leet algorithms, you probably don't understand the things we can do because we are so leet" Guy"Yes but why not just knock off everything on the list" Google" It is just not efficient, we have a team of computer geniuses here that will knock them all off the web like a nuclear bomb" Guy "What do you mean? Don't Nuclear bombs have collateral damage." Google "Nah don't worry about it, anyone in the area shouldn't be there" Guy "But what if they don't know where the area is?" Google "Well then I guess they might get blown up, we cant protect everyone" Meanwhile over the course of the last two years they have blown up 80% of everyone, and still are confident they will get it right.
Mark Rogers
06/12/2013 10:48 am
The companies that are moving up now have found a service that allows them to get mentioned in another blog. They are still buying these links and they are raking in huge numbers of reviews through paid services like trustrank. If all of your reviews are from TrustRank and you are paying for the servce, isn't this just as bad as buying a paid link?
Daniel Benny Simanjuntak
06/28/2013 09:09 am
Nice and informative post. I have just get some valuable tips and tricks of SEO.
Paul
07/03/2013 12:45 am
Your sycophantic comments make me cringe. Really!
Guest
01/06/2014 01:47 pm
A Spammy site is anything that doesn't make Google tons of money.