SEO Awareness: Google's Secrecy Regarding Their Site-Ranking Algorithms

When site owners either carry out SEO for their websites or hire firms specializing in SEO to handle the complex work for them, they do so because Google deliberately conceals the specifics of what is used by its ranking algorithms. This is ultimately done for the sake of the health of the competitive digital landscape because releasing all the precise details of the algorithms that dictate SERP placement would otherwise turn website creation into a contest where strict adherence to the rules is the sole and only goal. Such a mechanically minded approach to site creation would likely run counter to creating a resource or service that best serves the intended audience, so Google keeps its formulae under wraps even while implementing updates intended to better reward quality websites.

Google sometimes announces changes to its ranking algorithms by broadly describing what they do in concept. In April 2021, for example, Google rolled out a change it informally refers to as the "product reviews update," which is intended to award improved SERP positions to pages that describe products in thorough levels of detail. With each change that is incorporated into the algorithm in this manner, Google automatically issues mass penalties to the rankings of websites that were considered in line with standards beforehand. As a result, web pages that mainly consist of terse and basic descriptions for collections of products are now granted much less ranking credit.

This algorithmic update was issued separately from routine "core updates" that Google applies on a consistent schedule. A core update that was deployed in December 2020 was not accompanied by much clarifying text, leading many in the SEO community to conduct their own research and work out by themselves which trends in web development and marketing were becoming less significant to the algorithm. As it turned out, affiliate sites marketing products on their partners' behalf received major downturns in traffic. Site owners with the Ahrefs tool can observe the effects of a newly deployed core update playing out in real time by monitoring shifts in various sites' levels of incoming web traffic. For more information click here https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/n8d7wr/whathappenedto_gearhungrycom/.