Google announced a few days ago that there was about to be an algorithm update in order to improve their ability to determine to what degree results should be up-to-date.
An example Google used to explain how this change will affect users, was that if you were searching for a recipe, it wouldn’t matter whether the recipe was days or years old. But if you were searching for the results of a football match, it’s the most recent results you want. Which means when it comes to certain subjects, newer results will have priority over older results.
Upon first announcing the update Google stated that the change would affect roughly 35% of searches, dwarfing Panda’s 12% impact. But just yesterday (07/11/2011), Google clarified with the following statement:
To clarify, when we say this algorithm impacted 35% of searches, we mean at least one result on the page was affected, as opposed to when we’ve said noticeably impacted in the past, which means changes that are significant enough that an average user would notice. Using that same scale, this change noticeably impacts 6 – 10% of searches, depending on the language and domain you’re searching on.
Since the update went live, as usual, some reports have been released on who’s won and who’s lost. As expected, plenty of news sites have seen increases in traffic. However, it’s worth pointing out that these reports are not based on actual figures and are simply estimates based on lists of millions of keywords.
