Google has introduced a change to its algorithms that has been tested in the USA and launched internationally to English language Google users. This is intended to help users search results providing them with higher quality sites that are relevant to the search criteria. There are several changes that have been made, including an update to page rankings and search settings. The main intention being  to provide the most relevant search results.

Firstly, the implementation of reduced page rankings of low quality sites – including sites that duplicate content from other sites. It will work as an advantage for high quality sites – with original content insuring they are found in search results. This will be a welcome change to make sure people find the high quality sites in their results.

Secondly, Google are incorporating additional controls for a user to be able to personalise search results. This is not something that is entirely new – previous examples are Search Wiki and location settings. However, there is a new way to get more specific results  when searching. Google has introduced measures for users to have the ability to to block particular sites. When a user searches Google there will be a link  to block sites. When a site is blocked it will not appear in future searches. The feature is intended to give users greater control over their searches.

Since the changes to the algorithms Google have found that people are getting better search results from high quality sites. In addition to these changes, users can leave site feedback which means that google can go into looking at “long tail” of low ranking sites to make sure higher ranking sites are found that may have been missed previously. The algorithm is an extremely precise way of finding out the quality and relevance of a site. As websites are constantly changing Google will keep updating to indicate theses changes.