Google has updated the way it ranks pages of websites in it’s search results, to help prioritise fresher content that is more relevant to certain topics. The new “Freshness” update:
Queries that deserve freshness such as events and discussion are now deemed more important based on the inception of that page or content. If we write a great post about what has been happening this week (such as a specific episode of a tv program), you can forget about it if somebody writes about next week’s episode. Having an RSS feed has become more important, because it includes a time stamp in each post’s meta data.
However now that we have had a couple of months to digest the changes, in practice leading search engine optimisation specialists are saying this latest update is much more subtle than previous updates. In all honestly google has recognised fresher content as better value in search rankings for years. This update merely focuses the importance of content freshness in search queries which are clearly related to events and discussion based on events.
Google fellow Amit Singhal posted examples of the types of content that will be most likely to be affected:
Factors to be aware of are:
We develop all of our websites with search engines in mind and actively encourage our clients to keep their sites up to date and their audiences informed. Our websites are developed using popular content management platforms, giving our clients the tools and opportunity to make the most of web and help keep the on going cost of their website at a minimum.
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