In February, Google announced a list of 40 tweaks to its algorithm, the largest number of improvements in a single month. In the same month, Google confirmed another Panda update, an algorithm tweak that targets low-quality sites. Some major and some minor, the most recent changes by Google are always significant as they alter the algorithm that calls the shots on the order and selection of results on its search engine results pages. As expected, we were paying attention, and have narrowed down the list to the most significant updates of last month.

Panda 3.3 update. Similar to the Panda update in mid-January, the latest enhancement to the Panda system has made it more “accurate and sensitive” to recent updates on the web. While the enhancement sounds vague, it further refines Google’s effort to reward original, relevant, and useful content on the web.

Global release of shopping rich snippets. Dubbed “rich snippets,” shopping rich snippets allow users to better locate sites with the most relevant products by providing product prices, availability, ratings, and review counts. Previously only available in the US, Japan, and Germany, February’s update has made the feature available to users across the globe.

Expand the size of its images index in Universal Search. The latest improvement to Universal Search increases the number of results for which Google shows images in Universal Search. This means users will see more relevant images on a larger amount of searches. For site owners and developers, this increases the importance of SEO for images hosted on a site; Google will be showing them more often in organic search results.

Improvements to ranking for local search results. Codename “Venice,” this update enhances the execution of Local Universal results by depending more on the ranking of Google’s main search results as a signal.

More locally relevant predictions in YouTube. Google has enhanced the ranking for predictions in YouTube to offer more locally relevant results. The new change offers more accurate automated search recommendations in YouTube.

Fresher images. In February, Google tweaked its signals for producing fresh images. With the new improvement, its algorithm can more often “surface fresh images” when they are found online, which means recently published images show up quicker.

Improved detection for SafeSearch in Image Search. Google has enhanced its signal for identifying adult content in Image Search. To ensure that your images are not wrongly flagged as adult content, test your search results with Safe Search mode turned off and on.

Less duplication in expanded sitelinks. This change reduces duplication in the snippets for expanded sitelinks. With the latest signal tweak, Google now offers more relevant snippets based more on the page content and less on the search query.

Search engine algorithms are constantly changing, and Google’s search engine is no exception. A powerful search marketing campaign adapts to these changes to help businesses rank higher on major search engines.

by Pierre Zarokian