It came and kicked webmaster's butts!
I am talking of course about the Google update that got called Florida, and then Austin and Brandy after it. The one thing that tied them all together was Hilltop. A clever algorithm I shall try to explain in plain English below.
I suggest you get a large cup of coffee and a notepad as although this is plain English it isn't quick to read. You need to read it all though as if you wish to rank well on Google you need to know what you are up against.
The old (pre Florida) G Ranking algo and the new (Post Forida) G ranking algo.
The new is closely related to the old so I will detail the old first.
Old Google Ranking Formula = {(1-d)+a (RS)} * {(1-e)+b (PR * fb)}
There are damping factors in place but what the size of those factors are we don't know so I haven't included them in my plain English example, just leaving factors we can work with and can deliver and/or register.
In plain English this means the Old Algo would be:
RS (PR* PRLS)
Where:
RS = Relevance Score which is the relevancy of the page itself.
PR = PageRank which is the Toolbar PageRank (as we can't measure the REAL PR)
and PRLS = PR Logarithmic Scale which is mentioned in the article as probably close to 8. (Though I personally believe that it is slightly lower.)
In essence this means that making your page more relevant to search engines had a massive effect on your overall ranking when combined with PR accumulation.
This was witnessed by many many people and an increase in (Almost all) inward links would mean that your page would rank well for the relevant keywords on the page as well as unrelated terms on the page.
Once ineard links had come to a page this would increase PR which could be passed to other pages on site or run by the company which in turn meant that all pages SEO's by the same company had the potential to all be high ranking.
The upside for SEOers was that by delivering relevant content and ensuring PR increased they were pretty much guaranteed an increase in their SERP positions.
The massive downside for Google (and probably searchers in general) was that onpage content and off page linking was relatively simple to fake and control and SEOers took advantage of this through linking campaigns (to increase PR) and tactics such as cloaking to gain high on page Relevancy scores.
G (and many others) were aware of this and so it has been put forward that the post Florida algo changes have incorporated a new factor, which is the Local Score
New Google Ranking Formula = {(1-d)+a (RS)} * {(1-e)+b (PR * fb)} * {(1-f)+c (LS)}
Like the old algo there are damping factors in place and again what we don't know what they are so once again I haven't included them in my plain English example, just leaving factors we can work with and can deliver and/or register.
The Hilltop algo adds to the old Algo by giving a further multiplier, the LocalScore Rank (LS)
LocalScore builds upon PageRank by building a score for a page based upon the inward links to a page that come from "on topic" "authority sites"
I won't go into details about how LS and Hilltop works (as there are far better resources out there at explaining it than I can muster) but in essence it means that LS has a massive effect on the previously SEO'd pages for Searched phrases that have marked as needing to be more relevant and therefore having the LS score applied.
I say the "searched phrases that have been marked as needing to be more relevant" as it has been put forward that LocalScore only comes into play for a subset of searched terms. This is because of the massive computational overheads of working out a LS for a page and the impossibility (with G's current architecture) to compute the LS on the fly for a search phrase.
This makes sense as post Florida there were many phrases there seemeed to be heavily effected with little change in other phrases.
Scroogle.org kept a list of the phrases they saw differences in and that info is still available at
their archived site under hitlist.html
It may or may not still be relevant today.
In plain English the new algo is:
RS(LS (PR* PRLS))
Relevance Score multipled by Local Score multiplied by Real Page Rank.
If this is the case then all onpage SEO factors will have a much smaller effect on overall SERP positions than prior to Florida.
The way forward for SEOing has now become MUCH harder though there is still hope for an SEOer (white or black hat) it is just that the game rules have changed!
I still believe it is good common sense ensure onpage relevancy with great content.
Further PageRank is still extremely important and all your linking campaigns should continue, though it should be noted that types of links should be different from before.
Look at links coming from commercially unrelated sites, (links from abcd.co.uk to abcd.com will help with PR but not with LS) links coming from distinctly different IP ranges (Get links from servers in different data centres) and the most important extra work is.....
... a huge extra element of research time and effort should go in place, that being to find out who the authority sites are for your widget subject and get linked to by them.
This can be accomplished by manually undertaking the same process that Hilltop does but for your specific widget area.
Look at the top results for your widget phrases, your widget sub phrases, and (lets say..) 2 levels removed in the keyword pyramid and see who links to these pages.
There will become a natural set of authority sites that are obviously important for a widget phrase and THIS is where your extra effects should go in building links and relationships with.
But before you do any of the above I just want to refer to Brett's excellent article on building for 26 steps to 15k per day available at
If your content isn't relevant then it isn't gonna work and IMHO Brett's advice is more important today than ever before!
Hopefully I haven't gotten too geeky and simplified the real world effects of Hilltop and Local Score, if indeed it is the new algo in place at G!? :)
Regards everyone and good luck
Jason
Jason Duke is the owner and operator of Strange Logic, the business that helps your business which incorporates the Logic Diary the industry news resource for your internet business that quickly improves traffic and
sales by using scientific analysis of the search engines.
Widget Words is the definitive keyword resource to assist in your search engine marketing and pay per performance campaigns and Widget Reports.com the site that delivers industry specific reports for your target area of business.
Jason can be contacted by email jason@strangelogic.com or telephone +44 1708 762497 to discuss any of your needs or simply just for an informal discussion about the marketplace and his unique point of view.
