Businesses are once again being urged to start creating blogs and uploading videos to sites such as YouTube in order to get the most out of critical new Google algorithm changes that will affect more than a third of all searches.
The changes were announced on the official Google Blog, with the company making yet another shift in how it calculates the billions of searches that are made every day – these ones are all about finding the most relevant and up-to-date information.
“Given the incredibly fast pace at which information moves in today’s world, the most recent information can be from the last week, day or even minute, and depending on the search terms, the algorithm needs to be able to figure out if a result from a week ago about a TV show is recent, or if a result from a week ago about breaking news is too old,” the blog readS.
There are three main changes. The first refers to recent events or “hot topics”, so if you’re searching for a topic that has just happened immediately, such as a particular store event or a concert, you’ll find pages that are only a few hours old as opposed to a few months.
The second big change is for regularly occurring events like conferences. Google will now assume that you’re looking for the most recent conference, or the upcoming one, not ones from several years ago. This will also apply to recurring events like sports games.
The third and final change will affect businesses the most. It’s all about frequent updates, giving users the most relevant information for searches on products or reviews. Google says this is all about information that changes a lot, but isn’t really in the news, like changes to products or services.
“Different searches have different freshness needs. This algorithmic improvement is designed to better understand how to differentiate between these kinds of searches and the level of freshness you need, and make sure you get the most up to the minute answers.”
Stewart Media chief executive Jim Stewart says the changes fall into line with the greater emphasis Google has been placing on real-time updates, particularly after it introduced tweets into the search index.
“Ever since Twitter was introduced, Google has been trying to be more relevant and have more frequent content. So this is a big thing for businesses,” he says.
“It all goes into the idea that businesses should be commenting on things that are happening in their industry, and making sure they are being seen as a market leader in their space.”
Stewart says businesses need to start getting blogs, regularly updating them, and then start working on videos as well to ensure their regularly updated content starts to be viewed as expertise.
“If you’re going to conferences or even if you’re just working on events and updating products regularly, Google wants that new and relevant content.”
“This is also why it’s more important than ever to get your Google Webmaster tools set up, and then make sure you update regularly as well.”
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
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