becoming an answer engine rather than a search engine, the battle of getting
good organic rankings on a shrinking organic space is on a high note. This
battle continues and has become stronger than before. Let’s see what changes
Google did and how ranking has an effect on that.
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| Panda Update (Image source:- Fanpop) |
The
Panda Update
The very famous Panda update was done in Feb 23,2011 . This was done to
improve the quality of search results and to eradicate content farms. This
update used machine language scalability and quality ratings as factors for
judging the importance of a web page.
The
Result– It affected almost 12% of search queries and eradicated
many smaller websites who were operating in little niches.
The
Penguin Update
Penguin update was done to minimize the effects of web spam on search results.
It happened on 24th Apr, 2012.Penguin penalized websites that had
suspicious and spammy backlinks, lack of user friendly content and less social
media presence. Now, more social media presence and good natural links were
needed.
The
Result– It affected almost 3% of search queries and removed many
websites from the search results who used to enjoy good rankings for the past
several years.
The
Emanuel Update
This is the most recent update which Google did and still official
statements are on waiting. With this update, Google has decided to lower the
rankings of websites which receives enough DMCA notices for copyright
infringement. Hence, if you are maintaining a website then you need to see
there are no copyright violations. Continuous copyright violation request would
result in lower rankings.
The
Result– It would affect the smaller sites and many would loose
Google rankings. Big brands would remain unaffected.
High
weightage on domain authority
The authority of the domain has been given a high weightage and sites that
are enjoying good reputation with Google would be benefitted more than before.
Wikipedia and about.com are some of the sites that enjoy high domain authority.
The
Result– New sites have to wait for long periods of time to gain
domain authority and gain search engine visibility. Content has little to do.
High domain authority is one of the basic reasons that Google is displaying
many results from the same site. The wealthier would grow wealthier and the
poorer would remain poorer.
Other
Changes in Google slowly becoming an Answer Engine
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| Answer Engine (Image source:- Wikispaces by dicovery education) |
The
Knowledge Graph
With the introduction of Knowledge Graph in May 16th 2012, the Big G, entered into its most
desirable place of becoming an answer engine. Knowledge graph displayed
information related to the search query and avoided the reason for the people
to visit actual websites to have a glimpse of the content. It is a huge
database of 500 million real-world people, places and things and is in the
process of continuous updation. Knowledge graph provided answers to the people
on the Google result page itself. This meant, people would spend more time on
Google and the possibility of clicking on an ad would increase.
The Result– Knowledge
graph avoided the need of visiting websites and instead provided the
information user is looking for right on the Google result page itself. The
list of Google suggestions would also make use of knowledge graph which means
every suggested query would have a corresponding knowledge graph- a win win
situation for Google. Surely it would hurt thousands of website in the coming
years.
Showing
data from Email
Now, Google would also use the data from emails to present relevant
information along the right side of the search results. It would show results
directly from the gmail if it thinks its related to the search query.
The
Result– Gmail is a property of Google and it displays
advertisements on Gmail. If the users are spending more time on Gmail, it means
it gives Google a greater chance and more time to display ads infront of the
audience.
Google
would be able to answer back to your queries
Its in the process of making and soon you would be able to use Google as an
answer engine responding to your queries. Amit Singhal , the Google fellow has
suggested this sort of development in the official Google blog.
The Result– It is better
from user point of view and people may use it with ease. Proper feedbacks can
be given after its official launch.
Who
will win the battle?
The battle would be won by large brands. The power of money would work ,
brands that can invest huge sums of money in social media channels for
promotion, brands that can employ secret link builders for doing so called
natural link building would eventually survive.
The smaller businesses who have limited or no investment capacity would get
buried deep under the search results. They simply cannot expect good search
engine visibility.
What’s
bad?
The entire focus has been shifted to publicity. Brands that can publicize
themselves would emerge as winners. Content has little to do in this. Domain
authority has been given a high importance and weightage. Brands with high
domain authority can get good rankings even if they do not provide sufficient
content on their sites. Google should look into this and must make changes in
its present algorithm to judge the quality of content and give it a similar
weightage. There are several websites that are having excellent content which are tremendously useful for the user but they lack publicity. The worst part is – in majority of cases, publicity comes to those that are having higher rankings on Google or to those that are paying money for the publicity but Google is a search engine. It’s main purpose is to find valuable content on the web and present it before the user even if the content lacks publicity. Good content when presented before the user becomes popular but in the present scenario, Google is not allowing the small businesses to excel. Google should not become a puppet in the hands of bigger brands but instead give a more weightage on relevance.
