GOOGLE

Does Content or Links Improve Trust with Google?

Published

3 years ago

October 25, 2021

Google’s John Mueller answered a question in Google Office-hours hangout about improving trust with Google. Trustworthiness, along with expertise and authoritativeness are a hot topic. Mueller addresses the topic of trust factors in his answer.

Trustworthiness and E-A-T

Trustworthiness has become a big deal nowadays because Google’s Quality Raters Guidelines describes how Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness are important things for the search quality raters to look for when evaluating search results for specific kinds of queries, particularly what Google calls Your Money or Your Life categories like those for finance and medical search queries.

So it’s natural that an SEO would want to know how to improve their trust with Google.

Google Search Results About Trust Factors

If you search Google for:

What are google trust factors?

Google responds with multiple sites making a variety of claims:

The number one site:

“What is the Trust Factor? Google’s trust factor is a combination of many factors that they use to apply a value of how trustful a site is. The more trustful a site is seen the more likely its articles will be ranked higher on specific Google searches.”

The number two search result:

“Google TrustRank helps Google and other search engines combat web spam. Specifically, TrustRank measures so-called “trust signals”.”

The number three search result:

” In reality, whether or not Google trusts your site depends on several factors. Security is a leading factor.”

Search result number 4:

“Google uses trust signals to evaluate the genuineness of other ranking factors.”

One site published a periodic table of SEO factors:

“Here we dive into the Trust elements of the Periodic Table of SEO Factors.”

There’s an irony in Google’s search results though.

John Mueller’s answer seems to contradict what all of those answers in Google’s own search results.

How to Improve Trust

The person asking the question wanted to know what the best way was to improve trust with Google, presumably to achieve better rankings.

Here is the question:

“Does a website which includes great content improve in trust with Google or is that only determined through links?”

Google Says There are No Trust Factors

Google’s John Mueller answered:

“I don’t think we have like a trust factor that we can look at and say, oh trust is at (I don’t know) nine of out of twelve or whatever number you would have there.

So that’s kind of (I don’t know) …it’s almost like a philosophical question at that point.

It’s like, does improving the quality of your content overall make a website more trustworthy with regards to Google?

And like well… I don’t know. There are no metrics specifically for that.”

No Metrics for Measuring Trust

A metric is way to measure and help evaluate something. John Mueller is clear that Google does not have a metric specific for measuring trustworthiness.

The only reason trustworthiness is important in the search quality raters guidelines is because that is what it wants the third party raters to look for.

But that does not mean it’s a part of Google’s algorithms and that there’s an algorithm at Google that is rating sites for trustworthiness.

Improving Content is a Good Approach

Mueller next validated the practice of improving content.

He continued his answer:

“I think improving the quality of your content is always a good idea.

But it’s uh …lots of things are involved there.

And when it comes to trust it’s definitely not a matter of just links that are pointing at a website.”

No Metrics for Trust and Not Just Links

It’s always a bad idea to take a part of what is written in a patent or what John Mueller says and then make it mean something outside of the context of the overall patent or statement.

John Mueller’s answer that there is no metric for trustworthiness was said in the context of answering the question of whether “great content” or “links” help improve trust with Google.

Rather than focus on whether links or content influences Google to trust a website, Mueller discourages the person from thinking in terms of affecting a non-existing trust factor.

He encourages the person to focus on improving the content. Content is one of the few things that publishers have total control of, something that can’t be said about legitimate links.

Citation

Google Says There are No Trust Factors or Metrics for Measuring Trust

Watch Mueller pop the bubble on the idea of a trust metric at the 29:20 Minute Mark

Searchenginejournal.com

GOOGLE

Google Warns About Misuse of Its Indexing API

Published

1 month ago

September 12, 2024

Max

Google Warns About Misuse of Its Indexing API

Google has updated its Indexing API documentation with a clear warning about spam detection and the possible consequences of misuse.

Warning Against API Misuse The new message in the guide says:

“All submissions through the Indexing API are checked for spam. Any misuse, like using multiple accounts or going over the usage limits, could lead to access being taken away.”

This warning is aimed at people trying to abuse the system by exceeding the API’s limits or breaking Google’s rules.

What Is the Indexing API? The Indexing API allows websites to tell Google when job posting or livestream video pages are added or removed. It helps websites with fast-changing content get their pages crawled and indexed quickly.

But it seems some users have been trying to abuse this by using multiple accounts to get more access.

Impact of the Update Google is now closely watching how people use the Indexing API. If someone breaks the rules, they might lose access to the tool, which could make it harder for them to keep their search results updated for time-sensitive content.

How To Stay Compliant To use the Indexing API properly, follow these rules:

Don’t go over the usage limits, and if you need more, ask Google instead of using multiple accounts.
Use the API only for job postings or livestream videos, and make sure your data is correct.
Follow all of Google’s API guidelines and spam policies.
Use sitemaps along with the API, not as a replacement.

Remember, the Indexing API isn’t a shortcut to faster indexing. Follow the rules to keep your access.

GOOGLE

This Week in Search News: Simple and Easy-to-Read Update

Published

4 months ago

June 30, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

This Week in Search News: Simple and Easy-to-Read Update

Here’s what happened in the world of Google and search engines this week:

1. Google’s June 2024 Spam Update

Google finished rolling out its June 2024 spam update over a period of seven days. This update aims to reduce spammy content in search results.

2. Changes to Google Search Interface

Google has removed the continuous scroll feature for search results. Instead, it’s back to the old system of pages.

3. New Features and Tests

Link Cards: Google is testing link cards at the top of AI-generated overviews.
Health Overviews: There are more AI-generated health overviews showing up in search results.
Local Panels: Google is testing AI overviews in local information panels.

4. Search Rankings and Quality

Improving Rankings: Google said it can improve its search ranking system but will only do so on a large scale.
Measuring Quality: Google’s Elizabeth Tucker shared how they measure search quality.

5. Advice for Content Creators

Brand Names in Reviews: Google advises not to avoid mentioning brand names in review content.
Fixing 404 Pages: Google explained when it’s important to fix 404 error pages.

6. New Search Features in Google Chrome

Google Chrome for mobile devices has added several new search features to enhance user experience.

7. New Tests and Features in Google Search

Credit Card Widget: Google is testing a new widget for credit card information in search results.
Sliding Search Results: When making a new search query, the results might slide to the right.

8. Bing’s New Feature

Bing is now using AI to write “People Also Ask” questions in search results.

9. Local Search Ranking Factors

Menu items and popular times might be factors that influence local search rankings on Google.

10. Google Ads Updates

Query Matching and Brand Controls: Google Ads updated its query matching and brand controls, and advertisers are happy with these changes.
Lead Credits: Google will automate lead credits for Local Service Ads. Google says this is a good change, but some advertisers are worried.
tROAS Insights Box: Google Ads is testing a new insights box for tROAS (Target Return on Ad Spend) in Performance Max and Standard Shopping campaigns.
WordPress Tag Code: There is a new conversion code for Google Ads on WordPress sites.

These updates highlight how Google and other search engines are continuously evolving to improve user experience and provide better advertising tools.

AI

Exploring the Evolution of Language Translation: A Comparative Analysis of AI Chatbots and Google Translate

Published

8 months ago

February 26, 2024

Max

A Comparative Analysis of AI Chatbots and Google Translate

According to an article on PCMag, while Google Translate makes translating sentences into over 100 languages easy, regular users acknowledge that there’s still room for improvement.

In theory, large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT are expected to bring about a new era in language translation. These models consume vast amounts of text-based training data and real-time feedback from users worldwide, enabling them to quickly learn to generate coherent, human-like sentences in a wide range of languages.

However, despite the anticipation that ChatGPT would revolutionize translation, previous experiences have shown that such expectations are often inaccurate, posing challenges for translation accuracy. To put these claims to the test, PCMag conducted a blind test, asking fluent speakers of eight non-English languages to evaluate the translation results from various AI services.

The test compared ChatGPT (both the free and paid versions) to Google Translate, as well as to other competing chatbots such as Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini. The evaluation involved comparing the translation quality for two test paragraphs across different languages, including Polish, French, Korean, Spanish, Arabic, Tagalog, and Amharic.

In the first test conducted in June 2023, participants consistently favored AI chatbots over Google Translate. ChatGPT, Google Bard (now Gemini), and Microsoft Bing outperformed Google Translate, with ChatGPT receiving the highest praise. ChatGPT demonstrated superior performance in converting colloquialisms, while Google Translate often provided literal translations that lacked cultural nuance.

For instance, ChatGPT accurately translated colloquial expressions like “blow off steam,” whereas Google Translate produced more literal translations that failed to resonate across cultures. Participants appreciated ChatGPT’s ability to maintain consistent levels of formality and its consideration of gender options in translations.

The success of AI chatbots like ChatGPT can be attributed to reinforcement learning with human feedback (RLHF), which allows these models to learn from human preferences and produce culturally appropriate translations, particularly for non-native speakers. However, it’s essential to note that while AI chatbots outperformed Google Translate, they still had limitations and occasional inaccuracies.

In a subsequent test, PCMag evaluated different versions of ChatGPT, including the free and paid versions, as well as language-specific AI agents from OpenAI’s GPTStore. The paid version of ChatGPT, known as ChatGPT Plus, consistently delivered the best translations across various languages. However, Google Translate also showed improvement, performing surprisingly well compared to previous tests.

Overall, while ChatGPT Plus emerged as the preferred choice for translation, Google Translate demonstrated notable improvement, challenging the notion that AI chatbots are always superior to traditional translation tools.

Source: https://www.pcmag.com/articles/google-translate-vs-chatgpt-which-is-the-best-language-translator