Recent changes to Google's search algorithm look very much like they are designed to punish sites that show quickly trending searches or quick changing results.

A few weeks ago, Google announced several major updates to their ranking system. One of these was the introduction of two new quality metrics called Time To First Result (TTFR) and Estimated TimeToFill (ETT).

These two metrics try to measure how fast you can find content on a given topic by looking at the average time it took to get your first result, as well as estimating how long it would take to fill half of the pages in the top result for the given query.

If both of those times are longer than a certain number of seconds, then the algorithm assumes that the site doesn’t have good quality information and devalues the site's score.

Now, there is some debate about whether this change will actually hurt large websites with lots of content, but it definitely seems to be hurting small web properties that don't have enough content to keep up with demand!

There has been an explosion of complaints across all mediums about the loss of traffic due to this update. Many people claim that their rankings have dropped dramatically since the update and that they struggle to recover even months later.

In fact, one blogger wrote a whole article explaining just why showing ETT and TTUR is harmful and how to fix it.

Search engine updates

Over the past few months, search engines have been changing how they list results for your searched terms. They call this process “search quality update” or SQUI for short.

What happened is that certain websites made changes to their web pages in order to gain an advantage over other sites when it comes to SEO (Search Engine Optimization), which are the ways we use to rank higher on Google, Bing, and Yahoo!

This article will talk more about what changed, why it was done, and some potential consequences of these changes. But first, let us look at some examples.

Examples of recent SEO changes

Some examples of things that got ranked lower due to the change include:

Duplicate content – making sure your site has good content is one of the most important factors in getting new page views. However, if you just re-write copied material, then your website won’t get credit for original writing.

– making sure your site has good content is one of the most important factors in getting new page views. However, if you just re-write copied material, then your website won’t get credit for original writing. Thin content -making sure your site contains enough content to make people come back takes time so companies usually try to be as thin as possible by copying and pasting small pieces of information or even no information at all.

People click on different results

Recent trends are interesting, motivating people to do new things with their lives. Search engine algorithms take that inspiration and uses it to motivate more clicks for the same result.

By showing recent hot searches, your site will capitalize on this motivation. Yours can then be better than the competition!

People use search engines to find information so why not help them find what they want? If you’re an online shopping website, trending searches could help bring in new customers or keep current ones coming back.

If you're reading this article, then you know how important SEO is for your business's success. Reducing the effect of SEO on your site by omitting popular keywords and pages is very wrong.

But hiding popular content can have unexpected consequences. It may scare away potential users who wanted to look at that content!

We've discussed before the importance of social media engagement and interacting with other sites, but sometimes these applications go beyond just friendly conversation.

They also include copying and pasting links to make it seem like you own the site. Sometimes people will copy and paste the whole page, making it look fake or even spammy.

I have seen several cases where someone will add a link to their profile or site using a similar style font as yours and adding the same word or phrase twice because they assume you would say that too. This looks fake and hard to detect until someone points out the similarities.

Your website is not a search engine result

As mentioned before, showing your latest trending searches will help attract new visitors to your site. However, doing so can actually hurt your traffic in the long run.

By displaying the top performing searches, Google gives more exposure to sites that are well-optimized for those queries.

In fact, studies show that 94% of all clicks happen by chance. When there’s a high volume of activity at any given time, the chances increase that at least one of these random clicks happens on a popular search term or URL.

That could mean someone clicked on your site because they were looking for information about the same topic you do!

It also means people may be visiting your site because they found it through a link from another site, not because of your content. In other words, their goal was not to read your article, but rather to look up this info somewhere else.

Trends come and go

Recent trends in search engine optimization (SEO) are now totally outdated. With the explosion of the internet and online shopping, popular searches have become all about finding new products or services to purchase.

By advertising your business on these trending sites, you may be investing in wasted money and resources. Products that are needed by potential customers can easily get lost in the sea of similar ones.

It’s also important to note that not every successful company gets to use their own domain name as part of their SEO strategy. Some companies must make do with less rich content and marketing materials due to this.

Your website should always be showing up in search results

As mentioned earlier, if your site is not appearing in Google Search then it is very likely that you are missing out on significant traffic to your site.

This can also mean that you will be losing revenue as people cannot find what they want on your site.

If your site does not appear in our quality rankings (the mobile web and local pack versions of Google Search) then we may not recognize your website as an authoritative source for its content. We look at how well known your site is by determining whether others have linked to or cited your material as strong sources. If we cannot connect your URL to other websites or references, we don’t include your site in our Quality Score calculations.

In fact, even when you do show the link to one of your pages in the “Advanced Options” section of Search Settings, our algorithm will still discount the importance of that page because there is no direct connection with another site.

So, why would anyone go through all this work to promote your site only to have it disappear? Unfortunately, there is little we can do about this unless and until someone else adds your URL to their list of trusted sites.

Think about your audience

As mentioned before, showing trending searches to your followers can look very appealing as an opportunity to make some money. But depending on what type of account you have, this could be misleading for them.

If you had the chance to see all of the search trends for the past hour, what would you pick? Probably something viral or hot that people are talking about. Or maybe something related to the latest news event or scandal.

That is why it is important to think about who sees these trends. If someone does not agree with the way society is running at the moment, they may choose to mute or even delete their Instagram account in order to focus on more constructive things.

Instagram does not clearly ask if you are aware of the effect showing popular content has but we suggest being conscious of it. It is up to you to check if there is anything off about the picture or event that may affect how many people interact with the site.

“People use social media to feel connected to others so seeing negative experiences or events can cause them to react similarly,” said Stephanie Shields, MFA, founder of Social Media Awareness Systems. “By adding popularity to the mix, users may perceive the image or event as valid and worthy of engagement.”

Shields went onto say that although appearing rich may motivate some to emulate certain habits or behaviors, it is still an empty experience.

Consider a new search engine result page

Recent changes to Google’s mobile web experience have some people talking, including yours truly!

Google recently announced that it would begin hiding featured snippets for content rich searches from outside of its own domain (google.com).

These are typically questions and answers about a product or topic that appear at the top of smartphone browser search apps like Google Search and Bing Mobile.

A few weeks ago, these rich results started disappearing when you searched for “what is the best _________?”

They're not totally gone yet, but only one will show above the fold - the first link in the natural order of an app like Google Search.

The reason? According to a source with direct knowledge, this is because Amazon owns the famous question and answer site Answers. They're pulling their content to make room for more of their own.

This move has many observers worried about how easily they can access important information, even though there's no indication that the quality of info in these "sponsored" posts suffers. It also raises concerns about whether companies will continue to allow third-party sites to promote their products through vetted sources.

While this change may seem dramatic, it's actually quite recent. And while it could be seen as negative by those looking to spread awareness about a particular brand, I see it as a chance to try something new.

Test and adjust

Changing how your site displays search results can have a major influence on traffic! While changing the way sites display their listings is definitely not recommended, tweaking the way that Google shows its own searches is something you can try.

There are several ways to test this tweak, so choose one depending on what changes you want to make.

The first step is to make sure the search engine doesn’t show “Trending” searches. You can do this by going into Settings→ Search and limiting it to just the Default list or Customized.

Next, go onto YouTube and type in some search terms. Notice how there’s always at least one video with lots of comments and likes? That’s because people made it popular.

Now, compare both lists. If possible, perform an A-B test where you switch between the two settings for a few days. Which one gets more views? Probably the ones with the trending feature disabled!

That being said, trying to manipulate the algorithm never works. It will probably only backfire and hurt your website even further.