30 Search Quality Highlights that will change your perspective on SERP Positioning

Google Inside Search

Here’s the list for December from The official Google Search Blog

1. Image Search landing page quality signals. [launch codename “simple”] 

This is an improvement that analyzes various landing page signals for Image Search. We want to make sure that not only are we showing you the most relevant images, but we are also linking to the highest quality source pages. 

At the present time image search is becoming another ranking signal in search results. Through this image search update Google intends to increase image result relevancy and improve spam detection for Image Search. This update will be advantageous to press release sites, eCommerce and B2B sites. They can acquire more benefits when it comes to ranking. As per this update Google will give importance to image placement in a website landing page and alt tags to the images. Now’s the time for site owners optimize their landing pages if they’re poorly scored in terms of bounce rates and click through rates. 

2. More relevant sitelinks. [launch codename “concepts”, project codename “Megasitelinks”] 

We improved our algorithm for picking sitelinks. The result is more relevant sitelinks; for example, we may show sitelinks specific to your metropolitan region, which you can control with your location setting. 

Sitelinks are the ones appearing in the Organic SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) underneath the main URL. This will be helpful for the users to navigate your site’s important deep links. Do not confuse it with sitelink extensions in Google AdWords, which are appearing in the Google Search Ads. See the example below - 

Google Cloud Sitelinks

The purpose of this algorithm change is to show more relevant Geo-specific sitelinks by profoundly analyzing site’s structure and the users’ search queries on the search page to navigate the users to the most relevant location-specific page straight from the search results page itself. If you have used geolocation appropriately, Google can display sitelinks more specific to your region and that of the user.

3. Soft 404 Detection.

Web servers generally return the 404 status code when someone requests a page that doesn’t exist. However, some sites are configured to return other status codes, even though the page content might explain that the page was not found. We call these soft 404s (or “crypto” 404s) and they can be problematic for search engines because we aren’t sure if we should ignore the pages. This change is an improvement to how we detect soft 404s, especially in Russian, German and Spanish. For all you webmasters out there, the best practice is still to always use the correct response code.

When you are typing some page with spell mistake or clicking a page which is not available at that point of time you will be getting i.e., redirecting to an error page representing that the requested page is not available. That error page is called 404 error page and that 404 error is the standardized HTTP status code. Simply we can say that Pages not found generally return 404, a “page does not exist” response from the server. 

But as Google said, few sites are configured to return different codes, but still returns 404 which is called by Google ‘soft’ 404s. In other words, a soft 404 error occurs when the server sends a 200 OK status for the requested page, but according to Google it does not like it if your page configured to return these. In that case you should verify and set it to return hard 404s.

4. More accurate country-restricted searches. [launch codename “greencr”] 

On domains other than .com, users have the option to see only results from their particular country. This is a new algorithm that uses several signals to better determine where web documents are from, improving the accuracy of this feature. 
 
This update is happening to give country-specific results to the users according the location-based Google search engine they’re performing their search. For example, if you’re searching google.co.uk it will be good for you to see UK based search results and that is the more relevant one for you to find the things you want. If you visit Google.com (USA) and doing a search then you do not want to get the results from Google.com.au (Australia) index nor from Google.ca (Canada) search index and the other way around. This update will be beneficial for you if the businesses expect visitors from specific countries. 

5. More rich snippets.

We improved our process for detecting sites that qualify for shopping, recipe and review rich snippets. As a result, you should start seeing more sites with rich snippets in search results.

Rich Snippets or Rich Results are just an extra featured information that is displayed in Google search result. This we can do it by including a Structured Data in your website code. Common Rich Snippet types include event schedules, product reviews, location, etc. This improves your presence in search engine result pages and also improves your organic Click Through Rate (CTR).  

6. Better infrastructure for autocomplete. 

This is an infrastructure change to improve how our autocomplete algorithm handles spelling corrections for query prefixes (the beginning part of a search). 

Google made this change to help users on automated spell corrections that is suggestions when the prefix is misspelled in the keyword terms they’re typing in the Google search box. Google showing results before users finish typing will help them to find the most relevant and correct keywords.

7. Better spam detection in Image Search. [launch codename “leaf”] 

This is an extended search quality update of the "Image Search landing page quality signals” update. It is an attempt to discover image spam that is spam messages presented in Images. Likewise, sites which, included with many images which are identical will also be getting impacted by this update, although the site is legit in other quality norms. This algorithm update is, again created for the best end-user experience and to confirm that the website carries only good quality landing pages for its users. 

8. Google Instant enhancements for Japanese. 

For languages that use non-Latin characters, many users use a special IME (Input Method Editor) to enter queries. This change works with browsers that are IME-aware to better handle Japanese queries in Google Instant. 
 
Google Instant is an algorithmic feature that autocompletes your search query and shows predicted search terms as you type before you finish typing as a drop-down. Google realizes the value of acquiring the early market share in emerging markets like non-English speaking countries using non-Latin character alphabets. According to this Google does enhancements in Google Instant on detecting Japanese Queries.

9. More accurate byline dates. [launch codename “foby”] 
 
We made a few improvements to how we determine what date to associate with a document. As a result, you’ll see more accurate dates annotating search results.

The determination of this search quality highlight is to return fresh and relevant results for Google’s end-users according to the date that document or web page is published. Consistent with the date you’ve mentioned in the content of the landing pages Google will regulate the search results based on the relevancy and freshness of the specific date-relevant search queries.

10. Live results for NFL and college football. [project codename “Live Results”] 

The “Live Results” search quality project will exhibit NFL and college football scores and standings live in the search results. For those loving the football games it is good news, they should notice that NFL and NCAA games return live scores, in the latest Google search results.

11. Improved dataset for related queries.  

We are now using an improved dataset on term relationships to find related queries. We sometimes include results for queries that are related to your original search, and this improvement leads to results from more relevant related queries. 

In this, Google improves the value of broadening search parameters and enhancing the user search experience. For example, a site selling online courses on marketing will be of value to those looking for marketing training classes, but it will also be of value to those who may be looking for books to learn about marketing. They might become the course enrollees as the intention of buyers of those books is to learn the marketing. This update Google did for the reason, that it realizes too narrowly focused search results might lose prospective, related traffic which is still related to what a website does.

12. Related query improvements. [launch codename “lyndsy”]

Sometimes we fetch results for queries that are related to the original query but have fewer words. We made several changes to our algorithms to make them more conservative and less likely to introduce results without query words. 

Google enhanced search results furthermore by providing results that don’t contain the keywords provided by users in the Google search box, but still connected to the entered query. Due to this, end-users will cover the utmost search results that they’re actually looking for. For example, the term “internet marketing campaigns for enterprises” can also be connected to “online promotions for businesses”. 

13. Better lyrics results. [launch codename “baschi”, project codename “Contra”]  
 
On this search quality highlight, websites having music or ringtones or even Google ads, commonly rely on lyrics will have better indexing and high traffic. The lyrics will be displayed in the search results itself.

14. Tweak to +1 button on results page.  

Google changed the visible appearance of Google +1 button and visualize its appearance only when someone hover over a search result or if that specific search result has already been +1’ed. This is a significant visual change in its search results page as it improves user experience and lets the end user to revolve around what they looked-for.

15. Better spell correction in Vietnamese. [project codename “Pho Viet”]  

Same like "Google Instant enhancements for Japanese" Google does enhancements in Vietnamese queries with better spelling suggestions in search.

16. Upcoming events at venues.  

Now Google displays, event venues in its search results in consort with three upcoming events details for major venues so as to benefit the users to easily find where specific events like music concerts, parties, conferences, special occasions, etc., are held. This information should help any business that promoting and organizing events.
  
17. Improvements to image size signal. [launch codename “matter”]  

Google made live the long-discussed stuff that is Image Size Optimization as one its ranking signals for Image Search results. As a result of this update, citing image sizes for each image in the website or blog is now becoming important for the webmasters.  
 
18. Improved Hebrew synonyms. [launch codename “SweatNovember”, project codename “Synonyms”]  

Framing a content in a right way while translating a language is much important at all times. This update in the Google algorithm stops Google from using non-relevant and inappropriately translated synonyms across multiple languages of Hebrew. Sites which have been translated poorly the Hebrew language to other languages will begin to suffer on non-English search results.
 
19. Safer searching. [launch codename “Hoengg”, project codename "SafeSearch"]  

Google updated an option SafeSearch that is safer searching in both Google Search and Google Image Search, an auto-filter of possibly offensive and inappropriate search results with the intention to improve user experience. Triggering this tool will be helpful for parents as well to make their Childs do safer searching in Google. 
 
20. Encrypted search available on new regional domains.  
 
Google does a further initiation to protect its user privacy, by offering encrypted search by default on Google.com and by opting-in for other regions such as UK, Germany and France for instance. The search terms and sources of users who are signed in while doing their search in Google won’t be presented in analytic platform from now on. 

It would impact the Search Engine Optimizers and Webmasters effort as the search term results are helping them to analyze its source and its associated traffic plus conversions on the way to their websites. Because of this update and its restrictions, they cannot optimize their websites for a certain privacy protected keywords and cannot track them in Analytics.

21. Faster mobile browsing. [launch codename “old possum”, project codename “Skip Redirect”]  

Many of the website owners are redirecting their mobile device users to a different mobile-friendly version of their website from their desktop version for better speed, loading time, usability and visibility in mobile devices.  This change made by Google will help those to skip the redirects and load the final destination URL, i.e., mobile version of the URL much faster for the smartphone users.

22. Flight results on google.com

This is an extended update of Google’s Flight Search feature which they launched an early look, back in September which have been accessed over mouse click on "Flights" on the left side of the search results page, or by visiting the URL google.com/flights. 

After this initiation, users around the world can view the flight details like available flights, duration, flight charges, etc., directly in the search results when they’re typing flight related search terms in the Google Search box in a table format with a customization option to adjust details such as dates and so on.

For the time being Google limited those results to domestic flights of USA and planning to further extend this feature to provide data about nonstop routes for International flights, around 11 languages.

23. Graphing calculator

This new feature of Google is let you see mathematical functions that covers a wide-ranging range single variable functions including trigonometric, exponential, logarithmic and their compositions, right on the search result page when you do calculation or mathematical function-based typing in the Google Search, especially when doing this mathematical search in modern browsers. This will benefit students and math lovers across the globe.

24. Google Goggles 1.7

Google Goggles 1.7 version is an image recognition app with features like continuous mode, better-quality text recognition and subsidized results that helps to identify information on the images and store it in your android device like adding contacts, translating foreign text, and much more, to make user visual search experience considerably faster with improved results. 

Goggles 1.7 is an extended update of the Goggles version 1.4 which is only available in a beta version for Android phones. Now Google Goggles 1.7 is available for all Android devices. 

25. Tablet image results carousel view

Google is adding a new image carousel feature in its search results to show larger image results, which is, at present available in 40 languages. Users can swipe through the image carousel and can expand that image by tapping on it. 

26. Updated maps for UK, Germany, Finland and Sweden

Google made its announcement on updated maps for the UK, Germany, Finland and Sweden on December 8, 2011, which is done by working collaboratively with a range of organizations, agencies and data providers. Maps of these locations added up with the features like enhanced water bodies and extensive local park coverage.  

In addition, they created the “Report a Problem” link which will be available in the lower right side of the UK, Germany, Finland and Sweden Maps. So, users can let Google know if anything is incorrect with this new update.

27. Faster movie search on mobile

Google tweaked its search results for movie lovers. It updated the search results page for movie show related search terms where users can find movies, its posters, movie ratings, its showtimes and venues at the top of the smartphone-based search result pages. By clicking on the showtimes we can even purchase tickets right away from your smartphone. This feature currently exists in English, in the US.

28. Public Data Explorer revamp

On March 8, 2010, Google launched the trial version of Google Public Data Explorer visualization tool in Google Labs and this update is a revamping of the same tool, with the intention to make it available globally for everyone to upload, share and visualize their own data sets with a restructured appearance, enhanced interface, easy navigation on settings, and a newfangled visualization engine. Now you can search across the data, find data on issues, and access the tool from any device.

29. Author Stats in Webmaster Tools

Google introduces “Author Stats” in Google Webmaster Tools on December 14, 2011, that displays the frequency of Author’s content on the Google search results page, if that content is associated with the Author’s Google Profile. In Webmasters Tool, an Author can see the impressions and clicks on the content. Right now, Google introduced this feature as an experimental feature in Google Labs.

30. Smartphone Googlebot-Mobile

As the smartphone usage is raising day-by-day, Google announces on December 15, 2011, a new search bot named Googlebot-Mobile that crawls with a smartphone user-agent on top of its earlier feature phone user-agents to increase our coverage of smartphone content and to provide a better search experience, to facilitate proper and enhanced indexing for both feature phone and smartphone content.

Source: http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/2012/01/30-search-quality-highlights-with.html?spref=bl

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