Freshness Update: Google focuses on topicality

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Freshness Update: Google focuses on topicality
We have already briefly touched on some Google updates in the “Development of SEO” section . The Panda update in particular was hotly debated in 2011. In his article “Google Freshness Update – new is better!” Martin Mißfeldt had already given a very good overview of previous Google updates at the end of last year.

In 2010, for example, the search engine giant released an update called "Caffeine" that was designed to enable faster indexing of pages and their links. The "Panda Update" in the middle of last year was designed to downgrade websites with poor content in the search results and place more value on websites with good content. In one of the most recent updates from Google, the "Freshness Update," the topicality of the page content plays a crucial role. Search Engine Journal provides some interesting clues about the criteria Google uses to evaluate "fresh" content.

Age of the document
The age of a document is not calculated based on the number of days since its publication, but depends on when Google first discovered and searched the page or when the page first appeared in the search results . This is known as the "inception date". The closer a page is to this "inception date", the more weight it is given. But this also means that it loses more and more weight and importance over time.

Document changes affect new content The "how much"
is crucial here . How much is changed in an existing document? Is a link simply added to a page or is a longer passage added to the text? A more extensive change could be weighted differently than a smaller one. If the change only affects a small part of the page content, then it would have to be changed more often to have the same effect as changing a larger part of the website.

Frequency of changes
When evaluating a website, the "freshness update" also takes into account how often changes are made to a website. On a website with its own blog, for example, changes take place daily.

Adding new pages creates “freshness”
A website that is expanded to include several subpages is evaluated belgium phone data differently by Google than a site to which fewer pages are added.

Changes to main pages weigh more
If changes are made to main pages, such as the homepage, then this has a greater impact on the “freshness” rating than changes to less important (sub)pages.

Age of linking pages
How old are the pages you are getting links from? This factor also plays a decisive role in the "freshness" rating. Pages that get links from young, fresh websites are rated differently than pages that get links from older sites.

Length of stay of users
Another factor that influences the assessment of the topicality of your website is the length of stay of visitors. A website on which visitors spend a longer time appears to be more up-to-date than a page on which users only stay for a short time.

Conclusion: The timeliness of the website is only one of many factors in search engine optimization . However, regular updates can help to achieve a good position in the search results.