Brands & News Sites Among Winners From Google’s Freshness Algo Update, Report Says

Major brands and a variety of news sites — from established outlets to internet-only gossip sites — are among the winners from Google’s recent algorithm update that aimed to reward fresh and more recent content.

The findings come from SearchMetrics, the same company that has fairly accurately estimated Panda-related winners and losers several times this year. SearchMetrics uses a “visibility score” that’s based on analyzing millions of keywords; the numbers below are related to that score, and not to specific traffic gains or losses.

Freshness Algorithm Winners

The list below is lengthy, and divided into site types — brands are listed first, then celebrity news and other types of sites. As you’d expect, several news sites appear to have been rewarded with more visibility after Google’s shift to fresher results. But it’s odd to see several travel-related brands (Hotels.com, SouthwestVacations.com, NationalCar.com, etc.) and pizza sites (Dominos.com and PapaJohns.com) also getting visibility boosts after the algorithm change.

Freshness Algorithm Losers

Searchmetrics’ list of losers also has a variety of different types of sites — the same kinds that made the winners list. There are news sites (Independent.co.uk), government sites (NJ.gov and CPSC.gov) and brand sites (AmericanExpress.com and CapitalOne.com, among others).

Also of note is the inclusion of Google’s own Blogger.com at the bottom of the losers list — Searchmetrics says that domain dropped 20% in its visibility index.

Google announced the algorithm change last week, saying it wanted to show better results in situations where new/fresh content was needed. Google said the change impacts roughly 35% of all searches.

(Stock image via Shutterstock. Used with permission.)