New data from SEO and content marketing platform Searchmetrics suggests that rumours surrounding Google’s changes to its search engine algorithm may hold some truth.
Reports have been circulating that Google is currently rolling out algorithm changes and Searchmetrics’ results revealed where they have delivered an impact, namely in the keywords that have an effect on large brands.
The findings indicate that among the changes, Google has adjusted rankings for misspelt brand keywords. After changes to the search engine results pages (SERPS), a brand website will rank highly even if their brand name has been spelt incorrectly. In the case of sports brand Adidas, this would be “addidas” or “adiddas“.
Previously, price comparison sites, shops and small ad sites mainly ranked in this space and while many brands appear to have profited from Google’s latest changes, others are losing a considerable portion of rankings and falling lower down the pecking order.
State of flux
Searchmetrics went on to analyse mobile rankings in order to determine changes related to the recent fluctuations but found no correlation.
Despite insightful findings, the alterations are still being rolled out, and Searchmetrics’ founder and CTO Marcus Tober believes it is too early to draw definitive conclusions on the overall impact of the changes. Tober further states that ‘several sources’ reported Google denying a relation to Panda or Penguin.
“The recent changes are not necessarily allowing the conclusion of being a full update like Panda or Penguin, but the impact is bigger than usual algorithm adjustments,” he says.
“Things seem to not have calmed down yet, therefore be careful driving conclusions. We cannot speak of a Google update yet.”