{"id":2061,"date":"2015-06-30T14:41:03","date_gmt":"2015-06-30T14:41:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aseohosting.com\/blog\/?p=2061"},"modified":"2025-05-10T11:38:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T11:38:11","slug":"why-its-impossible-to-predict-googles-next-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aseohosting.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/why-its-impossible-to-predict-googles-next-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Why It&#8217;s Functionally Impossible To Predict Google&#8217;s Next Update (And Why That Doesn&#8217;t Matter)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you&#8217;re like most webmasters, you likely saw something troubling last month. Search engine rankings in your industry were all over the place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some websites completely tanked, others rose straight to the top; worse still, it all happened seemingly without rhyme or reason. Not surprisingly, SEOs quickly went wild with speculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What was Google doing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Was this the result of a refresh to the draconian Panda algorithm? A new experiment by Google? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A temporary hiccup?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Eventually, Google spoke up and revealed that, yes, it did make several changes to its core algorithm &#8211; but it wasn\u2019t a Panda update.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe company told Search Engine Land that while no spam-related update had happened, there were changes to its core ranking algorithm in terms of how it processes quality signals,\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/searchengineland.com\/the-quality-update-google-confirms-changing-how-quality-is-assessed-resulting-in-rankings-shake-up-221118\">writes Search Engine Land\u2019s Barry Schwartz<\/a>. \u201c oogle wouldn\u2019t provide specifics about how quality is now assessed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We know from past statements by Google that quality for a particular page or site is determined by a wide range of individual factors. It could be that Google is now weighting some of those factors more and others less.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Search Engine Land has, quite fittingly, named this the Quality Assessment Update. Not surprisingly, Google\u2019s been characteristically tight-lipped about what it changed, and why. All we really know is that something has changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Honestly? That\u2019s all we need to know. The problem with the SEO market right now is that it\u2019s way too obsessed with what Google is doing &#8211; why it released a recent update, what it\u2019s algorithms might mean, what to call the latest update&#8230;you get the idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Knowing what Google\u2019s doing might give you a slight competitive edge, sure. But at the same time, your time, effort, and energy are far better exerted on your website rather than on Google. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The search engine giant has repeatedly said it won&#8217;t tell users how it works. It also won&#8217;t prepare them for the next update. This shows no signs of changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cGoogle made no formal announcement that the update was coming, revealed very few details about the nature of the update, and even refused to acknowledge that the change was made until pressured to do so by curious search marketers,\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/jaysondemers\/2015\/06\/04\/what-googles-new-quality-assessment-update-means-for-seo\/2\/\">writes Jayson DeMers of Forbes.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn addition, Google hasn\u2019t released a major named update since 2013\u2019s Hummingbird Update, despite the unofficially named Pigeon and Mobilegeddon updates.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn the future, this pattern is likely to continue,\u201d he adds. \u201cGoogle appears happy with the core nature of its algorithm, so any future changes will likely come as unannounced, unnamed, undisclosed tweaks that shake up ranks only slightly, but without warning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Keep watch for them, but don\u2019t lose any sleep over them. As long as you\u2019re following general best practices, you\u2019ll only be rewarded.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There\u2019s really nothing else to be said here. The core ideas of SEO haven&#8217;t changed much. Your website should offer value to users. It should give them what they search for. This has been true for the past few years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Follow these, and it doesn\u2019t really matter what Google\u2019s doing, you\u2019ll be fine either way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;re like most webmasters, you likely saw something troubling last month. Search engine rankings in your industry were all over the place. Some websites completely tanked, others rose straight to the top; worse still, it all happened seemingly without rhyme or reason. Not surprisingly, SEOs quickly went wild with speculation. What was Google doing?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seo"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aseohosting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aseohosting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aseohosting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aseohosting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aseohosting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2061"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.aseohosting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4668,"href":"https:\/\/www.aseohosting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2061\/revisions\/4668"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aseohosting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aseohosting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aseohosting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aseohosting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}