Google's New Core Update Prioritizes News Sites

Prioritize press and specialized news sites

Additionally, new data suggests that Google’s latest core algorithm update had a smaller impact than its previous major algorithm change in September of last year. Specifically, based on data from Sistrix and tracked by Press Gazette, 19 of the 68 top news sites surveyed saw their visibility increase by at least 10% in the March update, while another 30 saw their visibility increase by more than 5%.

You updated the new Google column to prioritize news pages, image 1 — Illustration: GI

The biggest winner of the update was Al Jazeera. Their aljazeera.com news site saw a huge boost in visibility on Google, rising 44% from 11 to 16 spots between March 15, when Google began rolling out the update, and March 28, when the update was completed.

Sistrix's visibility score measures how successful a site is in Google's search results, specifically giving higher scores to sites that rank better in search results. While Sistrix says its visibility score is not a traffic metric, it's common for news sites with high traffic to receive higher scores.

SEO experts told Press Gazette that the latest core update was “relatively mild” for news publishers, with sites that cover a particular topic (such as technology, cars or pets) largely seeing a “ranking boost” from the update.

Bright Spot from Google

“News sites are often at the center of core updates,” says Dan Wood, SEO director at digital marketing specialists GA Agency. “Google wants to improve the quality of content it serves users in its results pages, and news publishers are often trusted sources of information.”

“Google’s recent core updates have had a profound impact on many news publishers, both locally and globally,” said Barry Adams of Polemic Digital. “This latest update was a relatively mild one, with most publishers experiencing little to no volatility beyond the normal daily ups and downs.”

“It appears that this latest update includes a more accurate assessment of quality signals, with many publishers considered to be top news outlets being rewarded with increased visibility. It’s great that Google’s core update this time around hasn’t caused the news industry to panic like it did before,” Adams added.

“I hope this is a trend that continues and that Google stops shrinking the space for news sites,” the expert added. “News will remain a strong part of search – users expect news articles as part of their search results, and news sites are some of the most trusted sources of information. Google’s search results will reflect that.”

Other notes

Google tweaks its search algorithms to improve search results. Most of the changes are minor, while others, like the 2022 Helpful Content Update, target news by specific topics or industries. But several times over the past year, the search giant has rolled out major changes called core updates that are big enough to get news publishers and search marketers to take notice.

According to Google, core updates are designed to ensure that the search giant delivers the most useful and trustworthy results to searchers. Google says that core updates do not target specific websites.

And according to experts, while core updates do impact a site's rankings, internal factors within the site, such as technical issues, content, and interface, can also impact rankings during a core update rollout.

Hoang Hai (according to Press Gazette, Sistrix)

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