Google today introduced new tools for webmasters, including those managing social media sites and discussion forums, who wish to enhance their content in Google search results. This feature comes after Google prioritized user-generated web content over SEO-optimized content, which has become an increasing issue in the modern web. In May, Google launched a new search filter called “Perspectives,” which highlights posts from discussion forums like Reddit and Q&A sites like Quora and social media platforms in search results. This feature was first launched on mobile devices and was made available to desktop users earlier this month along with other search changes.
Ranking Algorithm Update
The company also stated that its ranking algorithm has been updated to push more of these perspectives from primary sources to the top of search results for easier discovery.
New Markup Tags
With the new tools, Google gives sites that host people’s opinions the ability to signal to the search engine how to organize their data so that their content is accurately and “fully” displayed in Google search results, as the company explains.
For example, with the new ProfilePage tag, any site where creators publish content will be able to showcase creator profiles directly in Google search results, including information such as name, ID, profile picture, and number of followers or popularity of their content. Both the Perspectives feature and the Discussions and Forums feature in Google can benefit from this type of markup.
At the same time, the DiscussionForumPosting tag will help Google better recognize conversations coming from any online forum or discussion site. While Google can already identify a number of top forums, such as Reddit, in search results, this markup will also allow smaller sites to be indexed and ranked better through Google’s new algorithm.
Updates in Search Console
To assist webmasters in implementing these changes, Google is updating Search Console with new reports that show things like errors, warnings, and valid items related to their marked-up pages. Both features will also be available in rich results testing so that webmasters can test and verify any markup changes.
Google’s changes in how it classifies and ranks content come at a time when an increasing number of complaints have been raised regarding the utility of the search engine. While Google undoubtedly outperforms many of its search competitors, its results are often filled with SEO-optimized content and machine-written articles, and there is a real fear that as artificial intelligence advances, this problem will worsen. For example, this post circulating on X today describes “SEO theft” that stole 3.6 million search visits from a competitor by creating articles based on the competitor’s sitemap using AI. Although this is an extremely concerning and uncertain example, it stirs controversy as it represents what many believe will be the end of Google: fake content written by AI being favored over the work, ideas, and opinions of real people.
Whether this example becomes a reality or not, these are the exact changes that Google aims for with its ranking updates as the search engine seeks to improve the indexing and display and ranking of forums and social media sites in search results.
Google’s Experiments with Next-Generation Search Engine
Of course,
The experiments of Google with the next-generation search engine do not end here. The company is also experimenting with its smart answer engine, Search Generative Experience, and recently announced an experiment that will allow users to add comments on web pages. This is likely a precautionary step against Reddit’s choice to lock its site behind an API interface to prevent being a source for AI training data without payment. If comments take off, Google will have its own Reddit directly on Google, but the feature remains an optional experiment for now.
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