Als Suchmaschine mit dem größten Marktanteil bestimmt Google einen riesigen Teil unseres Informations- und Nachrichtenflusses. Wer etwas sucht, der googelt. Anhand der Ergebnisliste treffen Menschen wichtige Entscheidungen – ganz oben in der Ergebnisliste zu stehen ist das Ziel aller Dienstleister für Suchmaschinenoptimierung. Allerdings bestimmt Google die Regeln und hält diese geheim, was SEO zu einem komplexen Aufgabengebiet macht.
Google changes the rules from time to time. Whenever major Google updates are due, the search algorithm also changes. Behind the updates with cute animal names like Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird are new and initially nebulous rules for building successful websites. SEO experts and website owners must relearn and adapt websites as necessary. What sounds simple and harmless, decides globally about billions and can be in the worst case existence-threatening. In this article, however, we would like to take away your fear of Google updates and demystify them. Because if you rely on high-quality content and only build link collaborations that are relevant to the topic, you have little to fear.
Whenever Google publishes a major update to its search algorithm, the company pursues different goals. In most cases, es aims to improve the search result for the user. For example, anyone who enters "handytarife mit gutem netz" does not just want to receive advertising messages and dubious offers. Google wants to provide well-founded and verifiable information that helps users make informed decisions. These do not only have to be purchase decisions: Scientific, provable and well-written information texts are highly valued by Google. The overall goal of all Google updates is therefore to improve the quality of search results for users and to avoid and identify tricks and methods that artificially push poor quality content.
At the end of February 2011, many website operators began to sweat: With the Panda update, Google launched its first major quality offensive. According to the operators, but also many users, this had become necessary: So-called content farms were spreading all over the Internet. Apart from the relevant search terms, these pages contained only useless information, images and, in the worst case, malware. For users, these offers were worthless in terms of content. Google was faced with the situation of having to make more and more server capacity available for useless content; time for a spring cleaning in Mountain View/California.
In Germany, too, some portals had relied on the rather simple ranking factors: For example, if you wanted a website on the topic of "hanging pictures" to rank highly, all you had to do was include the terms "bilder aufhängen", "bild aufhängen" and perhaps "hammer" and "nagel" as often as possible in a text. Sentence structure, grammar and writing style were completely irrelevant - no one could or wanted to read this. The goal of the Google update was to give high-quality content a chance.
As a result of the Panda update, the content farms in the Google results consequently crashed completely. Among the sufferers were not only black sheep, but also companies and store sites that had sought the "easy" way for their search engine optimization. However, the most important solution to the supposed "Panda problem" was obvious: high-quality content with easy-to-read, but sophisticated and above all unique (unique content) texts and well-researched information brought the websites back to the top. Those who had relied on a quality strategy for content development from the outset did not need to fear Google's Panda.
The Penguin update was less large-scale compared to Panda, es took place in several stages starting in April 2012 and primarily targeted "over-optimized" websites. Google, naturally anxious to prevent manipulation of its own search results, specifically punished websites with various features from the toolbox of SEO experts: Keyword stuffing and unnatural-looking internal links to increase relevance were on the list of shortcomings. Legendary has become the Penguin update in terms of backlinks. Strangely many external references to one's own website caused the algorithm to strike. Google penalized affected websites in the ranking or even deleted them completely from the index - the biggest accident to be assumed in search engine marketing. Google still considers purchased backlinks as distortion of competition and penalizes these websites.
In two further stages, the Penguin Update 2.0 in May 2013 and in October 2014 with the Penguin Update 3.0 further tightened these measures: More than ever, websites and companies benefited that had relied from the outset on a sustainable content strategy with professional texts and content as well as a moderate use of optimization measures.
Das Hummingbird-Update kommt seit dem Herbst 2013 zum Einsatz und war das bisher größte Update des Suchalgorithmus seit 2000. Mit Hummingbird änderte sich die Methode der Auswertung von Suchbegriffen durch den Algorithmus grundlegend: Anstelle einfacher Worte und Wortkombinationen statisch auszuwerten, ist Google nun in der Lage, Sätze und Wortzusammenhänge zu verstehen. Der Algorithmus verfügt über ein semantisches Sprachverständnis und setzt Wortkombinationen in Sinnzusammenhang, auch wenn die Keyword-Recherche abweicht.
This so-called semantic search was of course also accompanied by a semantic evaluation of the content of the websites: Anyone who writes incoherent, grammatically incorrect or incomplete sentences will no longer be "understood" and will be penalized accordingly in the ranking. Since Hummingbird, it can therefore be assumed that the Google algorithm watches over the creators of text content like a kind of strict editor-in-chief and that content creation must become more professional than ever.
A major Google update in 2021 of the caliber of the previously mentioned updates is not yet in sight. In May, es will make an adjustment to the algorithm with the so-called Core Web Vitals. The focus of this update is on user experiences recorded by Google when visiting a website: The clarity, the findability of information and the content structure are the focus of attention, according to consistent reports.
Basically, the biggest Google Update 2021 so far does not differ from its predecessors: Structure and quality of the content are in the foreground together with a lean and functional technical design of the website. Clear structure and short loading times, clear possibilities for interaction and moderate, user-centered optimizations are and remain core aspects of good and sustainable website design.