Tag Archive for: Google

Key Takeaways

• Google’s 2024 API leak confirmed that click data and user engagement signals carry more weight in rankings than the search giant has publicly acknowledged. Brand authority matters more than many search engine optimization (SEO) professionals realize.
• Core updates now target multiple ranking systems at once. The March 2024 update, combined with prior efforts, reduced low-quality content in search results by 45 percent.
• AI Overviews (AIOs) appear in more than 25 percent of searches and have reshaped how content gets surfaced. Optimizing for AIO citations requires a different approach than traditional SEO.
• Spam enforcement has intensified, with Google actively targeting manipulative link profiles, scaled AI-generated content, cloaking, and site reputation abuse.
• High-quality content, link profiles built on relevance rather than volume, technically sound sites, and verifiable experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) signals have held up through every major update.

Have you noticed rankings shift after a recent update? 

Keeping pace with Google’s ranking algorithm can feel like chasing a moving target.

Google may tweak its algorithm thousands of times a year, but the core principle remains the same: rank sites that earn it and penalize those that game the system. 

If you understand what Google targets in every major update, you can stop reacting to Google algorithm changes and start anticipating them.

This guide covers what we know about ranking factors and every major Google algorithm change worth tracking. It also gives you 11 practical tactics to protect and improve your rankings, no matter what update comes next.

Use the table of contents to jump ahead or read start to finish if you’re new to algorithm changes.

What Do We Know About Google’s Algorithmic Ranking Factors?

Google doesn’t publish a definitive list of ranking factors. But in May 2024, more than 2,500 pages of internal API documentation were leaked, giving SEOs an unprecedented look under the hood.

The biggest revelation was NavBoost, a re-ranking system that uses Chrome clickstream data to evaluate how users interact with search results. 

The leaked documents reference click attributes including “goodClicks,” “badClicks,” “lastLongestClicks,” “unsquashed,” and “unicorn” clicks, all of which feed into how Google assesses page quality. Pages where users spend meaningful time send positive signals. Quick bounces do the opposite. 

Rand Fishkin of SparkToro, who analyzed the leak, concluded that building a recognizable, trusted brand outside of Google search is one of the most effective things you can do for organic rankings.

Source: https://sparktoro.com/blog/an-anonymous-source-shared-thousands-of-leaked-google-search-api-documents-with-me-everyone-in-seo-should-see-them/

The screenshot above comes straight from the leaked documentation. It catalogs the click-related fields Google tracks inside one of its page-quality modules, with attributes like goodClicks, badClicks, and lastLongestClicks listed directly. 

Beyond the leak, here’s a rundown of Google’s established ranking factors:

• Page speed: Core Web Vitals (CWVs) are confirmed ranking signals. Slow-loading pages create friction that hurts user experience and rankings.
• Content relevance: Google rewards content that matches user intent. Use targeted keywords naturally and build relevant content around the topics those keywords represent.
• Freshness: The leaked documentation confirmed how recently a page was published or updated factors into rankings. Regularly refreshing content with current data and examples sends a positive signal.
• Link quality: Backlinks from authoritative, relevant sources remain a core signal. The leaked documents suggest Google classifies links into low, medium, and high-quality tiers based in part on click data, with low-tier links ignored entirely. Google also appears to favor diverse link profiles with a range of referring domains over concentrated links from a small number of sources.
• Mobile-first indexing: Google uses the mobile version of your site for indexing and ranking.
• HTTPS: Secure connections are a baseline ranking signal and a trust factor for users.
• User engagement: Signals such as dwell time, click-through rate, and pogo-sticking feed into how NavBoost evaluates page quality.
• E-E-A-T: This shapes how Google’s quality raters evaluate content, which in turn influences how ranking systems are calibrated. The leaked documentation also suggests Google can identify authors and treat them as entities in the system, reinforcing the value of publishing content under recognized, credible bylines.

AIOs follow similar ranking principles but place added weight on structured content that directly answers specific questions. AIOs now trigger on nearly half of all tracked queries according to BrightEdge, and only about 38 percent of pages cited in AIOs also appear in the top 10 search results, according to Ahrefs. 

Topical authority and content depth are increasingly the deciding factors for AIO citations.

How Often Does Google Release Algorithm Changes?

Google search algorithm updates happen constantly. Google may push multiple changes in a single day, and the company has confirmed making thousands of changes to Search in a single year.

Most of these updates are small. You probably won’t notice a drop in page rankings from any individual one.

The exception is core updates. Google rolls out these larger, more sweeping changes a few times per year, and they can directly impact your page performance. 

Based on recent patterns, expect a core update about three to four times a year.

My Brief Timeline of Google Algorithm Updates

Below is a concise history of all Google algorithm updates that have had a lasting impact on how Google and SEOs operate, sorted by release date. Each entry links to a detailed breakdown further in this article.

• March 2026 Core Update
• December 2025 Core Update
• August 2025 Spam Update
• Site Reputation Abuse Update (May 2024, updated November 2024)
• March 2024 Core Update
• Search Generative Experience (May 2023, became AI Overviews May 2024)
• How-To and FAQ Changes, September 2023
• Product Review Update, April 2023
• E-E-A-T Update, December 2022
• Link Spam Update, December 2022
• Helpful Content Update, August 2022
• Page Experience Update, June 2021
• Google RankBrain, October 2015
• Google Hummingbird, September 2013
• Google Penguin, April 2012
• Google Panda, February 2011

The Google Algorithm Updates You Need to Know About

Here’s a closer look at each update and what it means for your SEO strategy.

March 2026 Core Update

Google’s first core update of 2026 began rolling out on March 27 and was completed on April 8, taking just over 12 days.

Source:https://status.search.google.com/incidents/7eTbAa2jWdToLkraZj5y

The update produced ranking volatility, but this is more routine with updates than a red flag. SE Ranking data shared with Search Engine Land showed nearly 80 percent of top-three URLs shifting positions, and roughly one in four top-10 pages falling out of the top 100 entirely.  

Google described it as “a regular update designed to surface relevant, satisfying content for searchers from all types of sites.” 

Independent analysis by Aleyda Solis using Sistrix data showed visibility moving away from aggregators, directories, and comparison sites, and toward official sources, established brands, and specialist platforms.

• Brand recognition: Is your site a known name in your niche, or could it be mistaken for a generic content site?
• Original value: Are you producing data, analysis, or insights of your own, or summarizing what’s already ranking?
• Destination authority: Does your site serve as a primary source or as a stop on the way to one?
• E-E-A-T signals: Is it clear who wrote the content and why a reader should trust it?

The March 2026 update is harder to read on its own than most. The core update launched two days after the March 2026 spam update completed on March 25, and roughly a month after the February 2026 Discover update wrapped. That means any visibility changes from late March or early April could trace back to any of the three. 

If your rankings shifted during that window, segment your data by date before deciding which update caused it. 

December 2025 Core Update

Google’s third and final core update of 2025 began rolling out on December 11 and was completed on December 29, taking just over 18 days.

Source: https://status.search.google.com/incidents/DsirqJ1gpPRgVQeccPRv

Google described it as a regular update designed to surface relevant, satisfying content from all types of sites. 

Within the first few days, significant ranking volatility was observed across industries, followed by a second spike around December 20. Some sites saw major drops in visibility, while others that had been penalized in previous updates experienced partial recoveries.

Google didn’t release update-specific guidance. Its standing advice remains consistent: there’s no single fix after a core update. If your site lost rankings, the most likely culprit is content that Google no longer considers the most helpful result for the queries you were ranking for.

If you were hit, here are a few areas to review:

• Content quality: Does your content fully satisfy the user’s search intent, or does it leave questions unanswered?
• Originality: Are you offering a unique perspective, or summarizing what’s already ranking?
• E-E-A-T signals: Is it clear who wrote the content, what their experience is, and why a reader should trust it?
• Technical health: Have CWVs, crawl errors, or mobile usability issues emerged since your last audit?

Recovery from core updates typically requires patience. Google has noted that meaningful improvements usually become visible after the next core update, though incremental gains are possible in between. 

The December 2025 update came five months after the June 2025 core update, continuing a cadence of three to four core updates per year.

August 2025 Spam Update

Google’s August 2025 spam update rolled out from August 26 to September 22, running nearly four weeks. It was the first spam update since December 2024.

Spam updates use Google’s AI-powered SpamBrain system to identify and demote sites that violate Google’s spam policies, including link spam, thin content, cloaking, scraped content, keyword stuffing, and deceptive redirects. 

The overall network impact was minimal, but individual sites felt it sharply. Some saw organic rankings collapse for key terms, while others penalized in earlier updates experienced recoveries.

One notable pattern is that sites with old spammy backlinks were not immune. 

Case studies showed exact-match anchor text links from low-quality sources, some built five or more years ago, being retroactively devalued as SpamBrain’s pattern recognition continues to improve.

If you haven’t audited your backlink profile recently, run one through Ahrefs or Semrush and flag links with exact-match keyword anchors from irrelevant or low-authority sources. Going forward, focus new link acquisition on relevance and authority.

Site Reputation Abuse Update

Site reputation abuse, also known as “parasite SEO,” is the practice of publishing third-party content on a high-authority domain to exploit that domain’s established ranking signals. Think of a payday loan review page on a university website, or an unrelated affiliate section on a major news site.

Google announced the policy in March 2024 alongside the March 2024 core update, with enforcement beginning May 5, 2024. Initially, the policy targeted third-party content published with little or no host oversight.

In November 2024, Google closed a significant loophole: First-party involvement, including licensing agreements and partial ownership, no longer provides immunity. 

The impact was immediate. High-profile publishers, including Forbes Advisor and CNN Underscored, saw sections of their sites deindexed or stripped of rankings within 24 hours.

Enforcement remains manual through Search Console, though Google has indicated plans to build algorithmic enforcement over time. If you host third-party content that exists primarily to rank for keywords outside your site’s core authority, remove it or noindex it.

March 2024 Core Update

The March 2024 core update was one of the most consequential algorithm updates in years. It ran from March 5 to April 19, overlapping with a simultaneous spam update, and involved changes to multiple core ranking systems at once.

Google’s goal was to reduce low-quality, unoriginal content in search results by 40 percent. 

After the rollout completed, Google reported that the combined impact of the March update and previous efforts had reduced such content by 45 percent.

Source: https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/google-search-update-march-2024/

The update also introduced three new spam policies, including expired domain abuse, scaled content abuse (targeting mass-produced pages regardless of whether they were human-written or AI-generated), and site reputation abuse.

One of the most significant structural changes was the retirement of the standalone Helpful Content system. Google folded its function into the core ranking systems, meaning helpful content evaluation now operates as part of the broader quality assessment rather than as a separate algorithmic layer. 

Sites that relied on high content volume at the expense of quality were hit hard, with some losing visibility within days of the rollout.

Search Generative Experience (SGE)

What started as SGE in May 2023 was the early prototype for what we now know as AIOs. At the time, SGE was an opt-in, U.S.-only experiment that used generative AI to produce detailed responses to search queries, complete with suggested follow-up questions and relevant links. 

Source: https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/generative-ai-search/

Source: Google Search, query example from blog.google/products/search/generative-ai-search/

The experiment ran through early 2024, with Google iterating on the format and expanding access. By May 2024, SGE was officially retired and replaced by AIOs, which rolled out broadly to U.S. users and later globally.

In hindsight, SGE was the blueprint. Many of the patterns observed during testing carried over directly into AIOs, including a preference for high-authority sources, structured content that clearly answers specific questions, strong E-E-A-T signals, and topical depth across a subject area. The major behavioral shift was that SGE required users to opt in, while AIOs appear automatically.

Today, AIOs trigger on approximately 48 percent of all tracked queries, up from roughly 30 percent a year earlier, according to BrightEdge. 

Presence rates climb above 80 percent in informational verticals like B2B technology and education. Only about 17 percent of AIO-cited sources also rank in the organic top 10, according to the same BrightEdge analysis, reinforcing that content depth and topical authority matter more than ranking position for earning citations.

How-To and FAQ Changes

This update, initially released in August 2023 and upgraded in September 2023, changed how Google displayed rich search results, such as frequently asked questions (FAQs) and how-tos.

Specifically, Google reduced the visibility of FAQ rich results and limited the visibility of how-to rich results on both desktop and mobile devices. As of September 13, 2023, Google no longer shows How-To rich results on desktop.

Where FAQ rich results are shown, they will be sourced from well-known, authoritative government and health websites.

There’s no need for websites to remove existing structured data that highlights FAQs and how-tos, but if they do, it won’t affect their rankings.

Product Review Update

The April 2023 Product Review Update focuses on experience. It leans heavily into E-E-A-T guidelines as a standard for content quality, prioritizing review content that goes above and beyond the formulaic results you generally see. Google says its ranking algorithm will reward these types of product reviews in search results.

So, if you’re writing product reviews, put in the extra effort to make them informative and helpful. That means enhancing experience with:

• Visual evidence: Include original photos rather than stock images.
• Audio experience: Add original audio to improve accessibility and depth.
• Evidence of experience: Show proof that you’ve used the product.
• Quantitative measurements: Track and share the product’s real-world performance.

E-E-A-T Update

Source: https://neilpatel.com/blog/what-is-e-e-a-t/

On December 15, 2022, Google updated its Search Quality Rater Guidelines to add a fourth dimension to the existing E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) framework: Experience.

The addition recognized that first-hand, lived experience with a topic produces meaningfully different content than expertise acquired secondhand. A product reviewer who has used a product for six months writes differently from someone summarizing a manufacturer’s spec sheet. Google wanted its guidelines to capture that distinction.

Trustworthiness remains the most important member of the E-E-A-T family, according to Google’s own documentation. You can have expertise and experience, but if readers can’t trust that the content is accurate and honest, E-E-A-T breaks down.

Link Spam Update

On December 14, 2022, Google released a link spam update targeting websites that buy and sell links. Google started leveraging its AI-powered SpamBrain system specifically to detect and neutralize link spam, including identifying sites purchasing links and sites used for passing them.

Any benefit previously given to a purchased link was nullified. Google’s John Mueller has repeatedly stated that most sites don’t need to manually disavow spammy links, as Google’s systems are designed to ignore them.

Keeping a clean link profile is essential to avoid getting hit by this update. Don’t buy links, and only use white hat techniques to earn them going forward.

Helpful Content Update

Google’s August 2022 Helpful Content Update rewarded websites that produce high-quality content for visitors. Google wanted the top search results filled with content that users find useful, which meant prioritizing depth, accuracy, and genuine value over keyword-driven fillers.

The initial update targeted English pages but was later expanded globally to all languages. 

In March 2024, Google retired the standalone Helpful Content system and folded it into the core ranking systems, as covered in the March 2024 section earlier. It’s now part of how Google assesses quality across every core update, including the August 2024 update and beyond.

Page Experience Update

Google’s Page Experience update began rolling out in June 2021 and was completed in August 2021. It formalized CWVs as direct ranking signals, combining them with existing signals for mobile-friendliness and HTTPS security. Guidelines around intrusive interstitials were also part of the framework.

The three CWVs are:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures loading performance. Target: under 2.5 seconds.
• Interaction to Next Paint (INP): Measures interactivity and responsiveness. Target: under 200 milliseconds. (INP replaced First Input Delay as a CWV metric in March 2024.)
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Measures visual stability. Target: a score below 0.1.

Google clarified that CWVs are ranking signals, not a standalone ranking system. A perfect score won’t guarantee top rankings on its own. But for competitive queries where multiple high-quality pages are vying for the same position, page experience can be the tiebreaker. 

Use PageSpeed Insights and Search Console’s CWV report to identify where your site needs attention.

Google RankBrain

In 2015, Google released a Hummingbird extension, RankBrain. It ranks pages based on whether they appear to answer a user’s search intent. In other words, it promotes the most relevant and informative content for a keyword or search phrase.

You can pass RankBrain’s scrutiny by researching the user intent behind every keyword and writing rich, quality content to meet their expectations.

Google Hummingbird

This 2013 ranking algorithm update was all about bridging the gap between what keywords people used and the type of content they wanted to find. In other words, it aimed to humanize the search engine experience and move the most informative and relevant content to the first page.

In response, marketers leveled up by including more keyword variations and relevant search phrases to improve their chances of meeting readers’ expectations.

Google Penguin

This update, introduced in 2012, directly combated “black hat” SEO tactics such as link directories and spammy backlinks. Like the Panda update, it also looked at keyword stuffing.

The goal was to shift away from emphasizing link volume to boost a page’s search ranking and instead focus on high-quality content that attracts valuable, engaging links.

Google Panda

Released in 2011, this SEO algorithm update targeted bad practices such as keyword stuffing and duplicate content. It introduced a “quality score” that ranked web pages based on how people would perceive their content rather than how many keywords they included.

To “survive” Google Panda, marketers needed to create quality content and use keywords strategically.

Source: https://thephagroup.com/blog/googles-algorithm-updates-a-timeline/

How Do I Know When Google Releases a New Algorithm Update?

Tracking algorithm updates doesn’t require constant monitoring. What it requires is the right setup.

Sources that tell you when updates happen:

• Google Search Central on X: The official account where Google announces confirmed core updates and spam updates. This is the most reliable primary source. If a significant update is rolling out, it appears here first.
• Google Search Status Dashboard: Google logs confirmed updates here with start and end dates. Bookmark it.
• Google Alerts: Set up an alert for “Google algorithm update” to get notified whenever credible SEO publications cover new updates.
• Industry publications: Search Engine Land and Search Engine Journal cover updates in detail. My blog does, too, so check back whenever you suspect a recent update. Subscribing to newsletters is an efficient way to stay informed without having to monitor daily.

Tools that show you when an update may have affected your site:

• Google Search Console: The Performance report shows changes in impressions, clicks, and average position over time. If you see a steep, sustained drop in Search Console that coincides with a known update date, it’s a strong indicator of impact.
• Google Search Central: Contains resources for diagnosing common performance problems, identifying possible algorithm penalties, and reviewing Google’s official recovery guidance after core updates.
• Google Analytics 4: Monitor organic traffic at the channel level with your Google Analytics account. Sudden drops in organic sessions, particularly combined with changes in engagement rate, can signal an algorithmic shift.
• MozCast: Tracks daily fluctuations in Google SERPs and displays them as a weather forecast. Mozcast’s high temperatures signal above-average ranking volatility.
• Semrush Sensor: Monitors volatility across categories and device types, making it useful for determining whether a change is industry-wide or site-specific.
• AccuRanker Grump: Provides volatility tracking by device and keyword category.

Source: https://www.accuranker.com/grump/

Is Google’s Algorithm Different from Other Search Engines?

Each search platform has its own algorithm and ranking factors. While many may overlap with Google’s ranking factors, they all take a unique approach to prioritizing internet content. 

Bing

Bing (which also powers Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, and AOL Search) shares broad principles with Google, but Bing’s specific ranking factors differ. It places more emphasis on keyword prominence in title tags and opening paragraphs and has historically been more transparent about incorporating social signals like likes and shares. 

Unlike Google, Bing has opted for a device-agnostic approach rather than mobile-first indexing, meaning desktop performance still carries significant weight in its rankings.

In April 2025, Bing launched Copilot Search, its own AI-powered answer layer that blends generative AI with traditional search results.

ChatGPT (SearchGPT)

ChatGPT’s search function operates on fundamentally different logic than a traditional search engine. Rather than ranking pages, it synthesizes answers from multiple sources using a large language (LLM) model augmented with live web retrieval, then presents them as conversational responses with inline citations. 

Source: https://chatgpt.com/

An SE Ranking study comparing AI search tools found that ChatGPT produces the most reference-heavy responses of any AI search engine, drawing heavily from user-generated content platforms like Reddit and YouTube alongside established media sources. 

Structured content that directly answers specific questions tends to perform better for AI citation than long-form narrative content.

TikTok and Social Search

TikTok has become a genuine search engine for a significant segment of the population. According to Axios, only 46 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds start product and lifestyle searches on Google, while 21 percent go directly to TikTok. 

TikTok’s algorithm is engagement-first. The platform’s dominant signal is watch time, followed by shares, comments, and saves. Hashtags, captions, on-screen text, and spoken words all contribute to topical categorization. 

Follower count has minimal influence on content discovery, meaning small accounts can compete with large ones on content merit alone.

The bigger takeaway for SEO is that your brand’s visibility across Google, Bing, ChatGPT, TikTok, and YouTube is increasingly interconnected. Brand mentions and citations across authoritative platforms improve your position in AI-generated answers, including Google’s own AIOs.

How to Succeed with Google’s Algorithm

Ready to tackle Google’s algorithm and boost your page rankings? Try these 11 Google search hacks.

1. Optimize for Mobile

Google uses mobile-first indexing, which means the mobile version of your site is what gets indexed and used for ranking, regardless of whether a user searches from a phone or desktop.

The primary technical drivers of mobile optimization are page speed and CLS. Responsiveness, measured by INP, rounds out the CWV picture. On the design side, tap target sizes and font readability matter most. Content should render cleanly on small screens without requiring horizontal scrolling.

Start with Google’s PageSpeed Insights, which provides a detailed audit of your mobile performance alongside specific recommendations.

Source: https://pagespeed.web.dev/

For a deeper technical breakdown, use Lighthouse through Chrome DevTools. Search Console’s CWV report can then help you identify which specific pages fall below Google’s good threshold.

2. Audit Your Internal Links

Next, check your internal links. Do they all work properly, and do they link to relevant, up-to-date content? If not, fix the links and ensure they’re redirecting to useful posts to improve the user experience on your website.

Good quality internal links can improve your rankings.

Overuse is also something to look out for. A page crammed with dozens of internal links dilutes the value of each link. Aim for two to four internal links per post as a baseline, with more on longer, more comprehensive pages.

3. Boost User Engagement

Google Analytics 4 defines an engaged session as one lasting longer than 10 seconds, having a key event, or having at least two page views or screen views. A low engagement rate on key landing pages is a signal worth investigating.

Practical improvements you can make are:

• Match content precisely to the query that brings users to the page.
• Structure content so the most important information appears above the fold.
• Use clear headings to help readers navigate.
• Add internal links to keep users moving through your site.

If users leave immediately, there’s a good chance your content isn’t delivering what the query promised.

4. Decrease Site Load Time

A slow site hurts CWV scores and user experience. Two of the most common changes most sites can make are image optimization and script reduction.

Compress and convert images to WebP format. You can take it a step further by lazy loading any images that sit below the fold. Also, audit and remove JavaScript that isn’t critical to page functionality. 

Google will provide a prioritized list of fixes if you run PageSpeed Insights. Start at the top and work your way through them. One well-executed fix often improves multiple metrics simultaneously.

Source: https://pagespeed.web.dev/

5. Avoid Duplicate Content

Big or small, duplicate content on your website can attract a penalty.

To identify duplicate content, use Copyscape. You can search by URL to check if your content appears elsewhere on the web or paste in specific text to find matches. Review the results and take action if you find duplicates. 

Implement canonical tags to tell Google which version is the primary page, set up 301 redirects where appropriate, or noindex pages that need to remain accessible but shouldn’t be indexed.

Source: https://www.copyscape.com/

6. Create Informative and Helpful Content

Helpful content fully answers the question a user searched for, ideally without them needing to click anywhere else. It provides context, accounts for follow-up questions, and comes from someone with genuine knowledge or direct experience with the topic.

The best way to do this is to write from real expertise and show your work with specific examples and data. If someone clicks on your website and stays there, Google knows you probably answered the user’s search query.

The result? Higher page rankings than if your articles are superficial or don’t target the right search intent.

7. Avoid Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing means cramming the same keyword into your content multiple times just to boost your chances of ranking. This type of content is often distracting and difficult to read, and it falls foul of the Google algorithm.

Want to avoid keyword stuffing and stay on Google’s good side? Just use a keyword naturally within the text.

8. Improve Site Navigation

Clean navigation makes your site easier for users and search engines. It reduces bounce rate and supports crawlability. It also gives Google a clearer picture of your site’s hierarchy and the pages you want prioritized.

A few things worth reviewing:

• Menu structure: Keep your primary navigation focused on the most important sections of your site. Burying key pages five clicks deep makes them harder for Google to prioritize.
• Internal linking architecture: Pages you want to rank should be linked from multiple places. Your most authoritative content should link out to supporting pages. This creates a content cluster structure that signals topical depth to Google.
• Sitemap: Submit an XML sitemap via Search Console to help Google discover your full page inventory, especially for larger sites.
• Broken links: Run a site audit monthly. Broken links waste crawl budget and create dead ends for users. Fix or redirect them.

9. Increase Page Security

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) has been a confirmed ranking signal since Google announced it in 2014. At this point, it’s a baseline. Sites still running on HTTP face trust warnings in Chrome, which affects user behavior regardless of ranking impact.

If you haven’t switched, you should be able to get a free Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate from your hosting provider. Then update all internal links and references to HTTPS. Verify the redirect setup in Search Console to confirm that no ranking signals are lost during the migration.

10. Update and Refresh Old Content

Content that ranked well two years ago may not hold up today. Statistics go stale, tools change, best practices shift, and Google notices when a page stops reflecting current reality. 

The leaked API documentation confirmed that freshness is a ranking factor, so regular content refreshes send a direct positive signal.

Build a review cadence for your highest-traffic pages. Update outdated statistics with current data, replace broken or irrelevant outbound links, add new sections where the topic has evolved, and verify that your target keywords still match current search intent. 

Pages that have lost rankings over time are often the best candidates for a refresh, since the existing URL already carries domain authority and backlink equity.

11. Build Your E-E-A-T Signals

Strong E-E-A-T signals correlate with better rankings. Here’s how to strengthen each dimension:

• Experience: Include original photos, first-person observations, and specific details that could only come from direct involvement with the topic.
• Expertise: Add author bios with relevant credentials and links to professional profiles. For Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) content (think health, finance, legal, safety), have qualified experts review or co-author the material.
• Authoritativeness: Earn links and mentions from credible sources in your industry. Press coverage and citations in widely-read publications carry particular weight.
• Trustworthiness: Make your site transparently owned and operated. Clear About pages, accessible contact information, accurate citations, SSL security, and honest disclosure of commercial relationships all contribute.

FAQs

What is the Google algorithm?

Google’s algorithm is a system of ranking factors, signals, and machine learning models that determines which pages appear in search results for any given query. The 2024 API leak revealed over 14,014 individual attributes tracked across more than 2,500 modules, with core factors including content relevance, link quality, user engagement signals, mobile performance, and page security.

How does Google’s search engine algorithm work?

Google crawls and indexes web pages, then uses its ranking systems to evaluate which pages best match a given query. It weighs hundreds of signals, from content relevance and backlink authority to user engagement data collected through systems like NavBoost, to determine the order of results.

How often does Google change its algorithm?

Google makes minor changes daily. Core updates, which can significantly affect rankings, roll out three to four times per year, with additional spam updates in between.

How do I recover from a Google algorithm update?

Confirm the timing of your traffic drop against known update dates using the Google Search Status Dashboard or Google Search Central on X. Review which pages lost rankings, look for patterns in content quality and E-E-A-T signals, make improvements where warranted, and monitor for recovery after the next core update.

Does Google’s algorithm apply to AI Overviews (AIOs)?

AIOs draw from the same underlying ranking infrastructure as organic search. Pages with strong E-E-A-T signals, structured content, and clear answers to specific questions are most likely to be cited.

Conclusion

Google’s algorithm changes constantly, but what it rewards doesn’t. High-quality content that genuinely helps the reader, link profiles built on trust and relevance, strong E-E-A-T signals, and solid technical foundations have earned rankings through every major update from Panda to March 2026.

The newest layer is optimization for AIOs and LLMs. The fundamentals still apply there, too. Google’s AI draws from the same authoritative, well-structured sources its traditional algorithm has always favored.

Stay informed on the latest trends in SEO and check back here whenever a new update lands. If you need help translating these algorithm signals into a strategy for your specific site, my team at NP Digital is here to help.

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