Google didn’t release their usual algorithm update news last month, so this week we have a plethora of juicy updates to look at.
Recently, Google has focused on three key SERP improvements:
Cleaning up search result pages
Enhancing Panda’s high-quality content detection
Displaying more answers directly on results (reducing clicks to websites)
Results Page Changes
Clustering
One of the bugbears that’s been bothering the SEO community in recent weeks has been the way that many of the top results for searches have been from the same domains. In the worst cases, a search can result in almost all the results being from the same site. Google have made three improvements to their site clustering algorithms to hopefully improve the diversity of search results.
SafeSearch Updates
Two key changes improve Google’s detection of adult content. These changes also affect how it’s displayed in search results. First, the “Labradoodle” update improves the detection of adult searches. Second, “vuvuzela” allows for better filtering. This filtering applies to thumbnails from adult videos in the SERPs.
Live Sports Results
Building on its Olympics features, Google’s ‘Answers’ update delivers richer details. Previously, searches showed medal tables and event schedules. Now, users instantly see schedules. They also see medal counts and record-breaking moments. Best of all, they don’t need to click through.
Improved Ordering of Top Results
Currently, Google’s new ‘ng2’ ranking update leverages unspecified key features to refine top-result ordering—however, specific details remain scarce. Therefore, SEOs must actively track ranking fluctuations during this investigation period—meanwhile, the community continues analyzing these changes to uncover patterns. Ultimately, share your observations in the comments to help crowdsource insights.
Sitelinks
Sitelinks are the smaller links that appear under the main SERP result to help with navigation to specific site subpages.
Recently, Google implemented four key updates—primarily improving snippets to show more useful content instead of generic boilerplate text. Additionally, they modified how sitelinks cluster and rank, signaling a continued focus on refining result quality.
Content Quality
As is par for the course these days, were seeing a lot of Panda-related updates targeted at improving the ranking algorithm’s detection of high quality content. There are numerous updates tagged with the description “This launch helps you find more high-quality content from trusted sources.” and a couple that that announce data refreshes for the Panda algorithm. As usual, Google are not forthcoming about exactly what they are up to with regard to detecting content and page quality.
Check out the full list of changes on Google’s blog. How have these changes affected the ranking of your sites? Do you think these changes are good news or bad? Let us know what you spot in the comments.
