#search algorithms

Tiktok isn't sure what I like. I only use it to look at recipes my wife sends me, but apparently it thinks I should use it for more than that. A lot more.

In today’s digital age, having a website is essential for any business to establish an online presence. However, creating a website alone is not enough to attract potential customers to your site. Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial to improve your website’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs). As search algorithms and user behavior continue to evolve, staying updated with the latest SEO trends is vital to ensure that your website ranks well in search engines. In this article, we will discuss the top SEO trends that you need to know to improve your website’s ranking. By implementing these trends in your SEO strategy, you can enhance your website’s online visibility and drive more organic traffic to your site.

WHAT ARE SEO TRENDS AND WHY DO YOU NEED TO KNOW THEM?

SEO trends refer to the latest techniques and strategies that website owners, digital marketers, and SEO professionals follow to improve their website’s ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). These trends are constantly evolving as search algorithms and user behavior changes, so it’s crucial to stay updated with the latest trends to ensure that your website remains relevant and visible to potential customers.

By following SEO trends, you can improve your website’s online visibility, attract more organic traffic to your site, and ultimately increase your business’s revenue. For example, if you implement multimedia content promotion, such as adding videos with transcripts to your website, it can significantly increase traffic to your site. This can result in more people discovering your brand and potentially becoming customers.

An example of how following SEO trends can affect website traffic is the Almco project we are currently working on. By adding a video with a transcript as a blog post, the page began to show up in Google Discovery, which significantly increased the website’s traffic.

This is an example of how following SEO trends, such as multimedia content promotion, can positively impact a website’s traffic and ultimately the success of the business.

HOW TO KEEP UP WITH SEO TRENDS?

Staying up-to-date with SEO trends is essential to ensure that your website remains visible and competitive in search engine results pages (SERPs). Here are some ways to keep up with SEO trends:

Hire an SEO specialist: an experienced SEO specialist can help you stay up-to-date with the latest trends and techniques in search engine optimization.

Communication among other specialists: network with other SEO professionals and attend industry events to stay informed about the latest trends.

Read industry sources: read blogs and websites such as Search Engine Journal, Moz, and Search Engine Land to keep up with the latest news and trends in SEO.

Subscribe to industry newsletters: subscribe to newsletters from industry experts and publications to receive the latest updates on SEO trends and techniques.

Monitor search algorithm updates: keep an eye on major search algorithm updates, such as Google’s MUM and Penguin updates, to understand how they may impact your website’s ranking.

By staying informed and implementing the latest SEO trends and techniques, you can improve your website’s visibility, attract more organic traffic to your site, and ultimately grow your business.

To learn more about our SEO services, visit the SEO Promotion Services page.

NEW SEO TRENDS IN 2023

As the digital landscape continues to evolve, new SEO trends are emerging in 2023 that businesses should be aware of. In the following paragraphs, we will explore some of these emerging trends and discuss how they are shaping the future of SEO.

AI becomes an important SEO tool

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an increasingly important tool for SEO specialists in recent years, as it offers many benefits for content creation and optimization. ChatGPT is just one example of an AI-powered tool that can write text, generate unique product descriptions, and develop effective link-building strategies, among other things. Other AI tools available for SEO include Bing from Microsoft, Jasper, Anyword, and Rytr.

Companies such as CNN and Ukrainian retailer Epicentr have already started using AI-generated content to improve their productivity and create unique content faster. However, it’s important to note that AI has its limitations and cannot yet fully replace human SEO specialists. While AI can improve productivity and make SEO optimization faster and easier, it still requires human oversight and editing to ensure quality and accuracy. Overall, AI is a valuable tool for SEO specialists, but it should be used in conjunction with human expertise for optimal results.

One example of how AI-generated content can be effective is a case in which we used ChatGPT to create an article for a website. The article was indexed immediately, within one day, and began to bring traffic to the site. What’s particularly interesting about this case is that when we used an OpenAI tool for detecting AI-written articles, it showed that the article was generated by a human, despite the fact that it was actually written by ChatGPT. This demonstrates the high quality and authenticity of the content generated by AI tools like ChatGPT, and how it can seamlessly integrate into a website’s SEO strategy.

You may be interested: The impact of ChatGPT on marketing, advertising, SMM, and SEO

Showing Experience to comply with new EEAT requirements

In 2022, Google updated its Quality Rater Guidelines to emphasize the importance of expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (EAT) in website content. They added an additional “E” to EAT, making it EEAT. This means that now, in addition to expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, Google also considers first-hand experience to be a crucial aspect of a website’s content. To comply with this new requirement, it’s important for websites to have reviews, author bios, an “about us” page, and a privacy policy page. These elements can help demonstrate a website’s expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness, and first-hand experience. This is particularly important for sites in the YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) niche, but it’s important for all websites to take EEAT into consideration, as it can affect their traffic after a core update. To learn more about EEAT and how to demonstrate first-hand experience, check out the Google Search Central Blog and a very informative article from Search Engine Journal.

Importance of multimedia content

Adding multimedia content such as images to a website is crucial for a positive user experience and can also have a positive impact on SEO. It is important to use unique images and optimize them properly, including adding a title when saving the image, adding title and alt text in the admin panel, using images in the proper context, and saving metadata. This is especially important for local businesses to ensure that their images are properly indexed and appear in relevant local searches.

One option for creating unique images is to take your own photos, but there are also AI-powered tools available such as Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and DALL-E. Out of these options, Midjourney we recommend as the best.

By incorporating video content on the website, you can also enhance the user experience and potentially improve SEO. Google has even included a separate tab for pages with video content, indicating its importance. It is recommended to create your own videos, even if they are simple, to make them unique. Tools such as Invideo, Synthesia, Elai, and Steve AI can help create and edit videos. Don’t forget to optimize videos by adding descriptions.

Voice search and the growing importance of low-frequency queries

Voice search is becoming increasingly popular and has changed the way people search for information. This means that SEO strategies should consider how people speak and formulate questions when using voice search, which may differ from how they would type the same query. As an instance, someone may use voice search to ask, “What are the latest SEO trends for 2022?” whereas typing in the words “2022 SEO trends.”

As for low-frequency queries, these are longer and more specific search terms that are not as commonly used but are highly relevant to the user’s search intent. SEO specialists should focus on these types of queries as they can have a higher conversion rate than generic, high-frequency keywords.

To optimize for voice search and long-tailed queries, SEO specialists should focus on creating high-quality content that directly answers the user’s question, using natural language that reflects how people speak in everyday conversations, and including structured data to help search engines better understand the content.

To learn more about our SEO services, visit the Free SEO Audit page.

Increasing the importance of your own research and publishing your own unique content

In today’s digital landscape, it is essential for companies to invest in conducting their own research, surveys, and experiments. Simply writing unique content is no longer enough to stand out from the competition. Rather, companies must provide their own unique information that cannot be found elsewhere on the internet. This means that articles should not only provide comprehensive information, but also offer insights and perspectives that are exclusive to the company. As a result, longer articles that go into greater depth are becoming increasingly valued in the industry.

In the case of Decks Toronto , we added an article with detailed information comparing two popular brands. The article contained a lot of unique criteria, technical information, and tables that were not readily available on the internet. This approach of conducting research and providing unique information in their content helped Decks Toronto stand out from their competitors and establish themselves as a credible source of information in their industry.

Learn more about SEO strategy for local e-commerce businesses in our article “SEO  case study: strategy to overcome seasonality, PPC competition and niche crisis for local ecommerce business”

Optimizing for user’s intent

Optimizing for user intent involves analyzing the target audience and understanding their needs, questions, and problems, rather than simply optimizing for one keyword. This approach ensures that the article provides valuable and relevant information that meets the user’s search intent. By understanding the user’s intent, content creators can optimize their articles by using relevant keywords, structuring the content to answer specific questions, and providing valuable insights that address the user’s needs. This approach not only improves the user experience but also increases the chances of the article ranking higher in search engine results pages.

Semantic SEO optimization: knowledge graphs & entities

Semantic SEO optimization focuses on using contextual information and understanding the relationships between different entities to improve the relevance of search results. This involves optimizing for knowledge graphs and entities, which are the building blocks of information that search engines use to understand the meaning behind queries and content. By structuring your content in a way that aligns with the way search engines interpret and present information, you can improve the visibility and relevance of your website in search results. For example, you can use schema markup to define the relationships between entities and provide additional context for search engines. This can help search engines understand the meaning behind queries and present more relevant results to users. Additionally, you can optimize your content for featured snippets and other rich snippets, which are designed to provide users with quick answers to their queries.

SEO TRENDS THAT ARE KEEPING THEIR IMPORTANCE IN 2023

While there are always new SEO trends emerging, it’s important to remember that the foundational elements of SEO are still critical to success. Further we will explore some of the common SEO trends that have been relevant in the past, are currently relevant, and are expected to continue to be relevant in the future.

Site loading speed and Core Web Vitals

In 2023, site loading speed and Core Web Vitals will continue to be important SEO trends. Core Web Vitals, which consist of three metrics – Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – are used to measure the user experience of a website. Improving these metrics can lead to a better user experience, which can result in better search engine rankings. Additionally, site loading speed plays a crucial role in both user experience and search engine rankings. Slow loading times can lead to increased bounce rates and lower rankings. Tools like PageSpeed Insights can help website owners identify areas for improvement and optimize their site for faster loading times. By prioritizing site speed and Core Web Vitals, website owners can improve their SEO and provide a better user experience for their visitors.

Recently, on the 24th of April, Google announced that they will no longer support some ranking signals, including Page Speed Insights. However, this does not mean that site speed is no longer important for SEO. Google’s intention is to encourage a holistic approach to website optimization and not to focus solely on numbers. Instead of Page Speed Insights, developers can use Google Lighthouse to measure the speed and performance of their sites. Additionally, SEO professionals can continue to use GTmetrix, which provides website speed test results and detailed performance reports.

High-quality content

High-quality content is an essential element of SEO, as it ensures that users find what they are looking for when they land on a website. Google’s “helpful content update” emphasizes the importance of creating content that is genuinely useful to users, answering their queries and providing helpful information. To create high-quality content, it’s important to research your topic thoroughly and use reputable sources. A clear and engaging writing style is also essential, as well as incorporating multimedia elements such as images and videos. Google provides guidelines for creating helpful content, which include prioritizing the user’s needs, ensuring accuracy and expertise, and creating content that is easy to understand and access. By creating high-quality content, websites can improve their rankings in search results and attract more traffic.

Linkbuilding

Link building is an important part of any SEO strategy and involves acquiring links from other websites to your own site. One effective way to start link building is by analyzing your competitors’ pages and identifying the websites that are linking to them. You can use tools like Ahrefs to check your domain rating and the number of referring domains pointing to your site.

In a case where we invested in low-budget link building, the results might not be immediately noticeable. However, after a few months, we started seeing an increase in traffic. This is because links from high-quality, relevant websites can help improve your website’s authority and search engine rankings.

It’s important to note that link building should be done carefully and with a focus on quality over quantity. Low-quality or spammy links can actually harm your website’s rankings and reputation. Instead, aim to build relationships with other website owners in your industry and create valuable content that others will want to link to naturally.

Mobile friendliness

Mobile friendliness is a critical aspect of website optimization, as more and more users access the internet from their mobile devices. To ensure that your website is mobile-friendly, you can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool, which analyzes your website’s pages and reports if they are designed to be viewed on mobile devices. The tool evaluates factors such as the text size, page loading speed, and responsiveness of your website on different mobile devices. By making your website mobile-friendly, you can improve the user experience for your mobile audience, boost your search engine rankings, and drive more traffic to your site.

On the 24th of April, Google announced that it will retire its Mobile-Friendly test tool. This tool has been used by many SEO professionals to check if their website is mobile-friendly. However, this announcement does not mean that responsible design is not important. Developers from Google want SEO to focus on a more holistic approach rather than just numbers. They recommend using other tools, such as the Mobile Usability report in Search Console, to ensure your website is mobile-friendly. This change is in line with Google’s focus on improving user experience on the web.

Targeting the audience and its needs, not bots

In the world of SEO, it’s important to remember that we write for people, not just for search engine bots. In the past, there was a tendency to focus too much on keyword density and stuffing pages with exact-match keywords in order to rank higher. However, with Google’s implementation of the BERT algorithm, the focus has shifted to understanding the context of the content and providing value to the reader. This means that you can focus on creating high-quality content that addresses the needs of your target audience, rather than worrying about exact keyword matches. By crafting content that is relevant, engaging, and informative to your audience, you’ll be able to build trust and credibility, ultimately leading to higher rankings and better engagement.

IM4U DIGITAL MARKETING AGENCY WILL HELP YOU TO STAY UP-DO-DATE ON SEO TRENDS

2020年4月09日 (星期四) [6/60]

Today we covered search algorithms, which I had forgotten how to do (re: that one algorithms class I almost failed). So breadth first search and depth first search and then iterative depth, which was something I never heard before in my life, so hey.  New things.  Also spent wayyy too long trying to figure out a Leetcode problem.  I wrote a shit ton of code for hourrsss before I remembered that I probably could have solved it using a stack. Bright side, according to LeetCode, my code was faster than 86% of the other submissions!  Which is a plus, because normally my runtime is definitely not that.  Thank you, past me, for paying enough attention in lecture to remember that stacks exist.

I also had a zoom meeting for a club today!  It’s a Cantonese language group from school, and this was our first meeting for the quarter.  Mostly it was watching this Canto drama and trying to decipher stuff line by line.  As it turns out?  I know a lot more Cantonese than I thought.  Sure, I didn’t know everything, but I did get things right and it did make me feel smart.  

by Tom Socca

Backlinks are no longer evaluated solely by their source or volume. Modern search engines have evolved to assess how well a link fits within a broader context. This includes analyzing the relationship between topics, the intent behind the content, and how different pieces of information connect across the web.

What Is Link Relevance?

Link relevance refers to how closely the linking content aligns with the topic of the page it points to. A relevant backlink helps search engines understand that the linked content is part of a larger, meaningful conversation within a specific subject area.

For example:

A link from a digital marketing article to an SEO resource is contextually aligned

A link from an unrelated niche may carry less interpretive value

Consistency across multiple relevant sources strengthens topical authority

Relevance helps search engines move beyond simple link counting toward understanding subject matter depth.

The Role of Context in Backlink Evaluation

Search engines analyze more than just the link itself—they evaluate the surrounding content and how the link is positioned within it.

Key contextual elements include:

Surrounding Text: Words and phrases near the link help define its meaning

Content Intent: Whether the page is informational, navigational, or transactional

Placement: Links embedded naturally within content carry more weight than those placed in footers or sidebars

Semantic Alignment: The relationship between concepts, not just keywords

This allows search engines to determine whether a link is genuinely useful or artificially placed.

Entity-Based SEO and Link Relationships

Modern SEO relies heavily on entity-based understanding. Instead of focusing only on keywords, search engines map relationships between entities such as brands, topics, and concepts.

This means:

Links help establish connections between related ideas

Consistent mentions across authoritative sources reinforce credibility

Topical clusters strengthen how a website is perceived within a niche

For instance, when multiple relevant sources reference similar concepts, it signals a strong, interconnected knowledge base.

How Algorithms Interpret Link Quality

Search engines use advanced systems to evaluate whether a backlink contributes meaningful value.

They consider:

The authority and trust of the linking domain

The topical consistency between pages

Engagement signals indicating real user interaction

Patterns that suggest natural vs manipulated linking

For a more detailed look at how link authority, relevance, and trust signals work together within ranking systems, this resource offers additional context on building strong backlink profiles: https://rohringresults.com/high-authority-backlinks-for-website-ranking/

Why Relevance Strengthens Long-Term SEO

Relevant backlinks contribute to sustainable SEO growth because they:

Align with how search engines interpret expertise

Reinforce topical authority over time

Support a cohesive content ecosystem

Rather than relying on isolated tactics, relevance-driven linking builds a stronger foundation for visibility.

Conclusion

Search engines evaluate backlinks through a combination of relevance, context, and entity relationships. Understanding these factors helps clarify why certain links carry more weight and how content can be positioned within a meaningful, connected framework.

The CSE250 Search Algorithms Video.

This all started because I wanted to rip a phone book in half.

About a year ago, I was brainstorming different ideas to demonstrate search algorithms to my recitation section. I had done some of my own research on different videos to play in class [1] [2] [3] [4], but I hadn't come across anything specific to my needs in the classroom.

So, when you can't find a resource that you're looking for, just make your own!

Example:

You search vintage Barbie patterns on Etsy (a lot of people have been uploading them and making them pdfs, making them pretty cheap, etc.)

The next day you search for raw crystal earrings idk to see what's available for a friend's birthday or something

But you keep getting the vintage Barbie patterns - and let's be honest they'll throw up vintage Barbies and vintage Barbie clothes up as well among the raw crystal stuff that shows up in your search

It's like that on more sites than Etsy, it's just a recent example and of course you can replace the two things I listed as any two other things and their related items. So your search may be like 60% the thing you're searching for and 40% whatever you searched in the recent past

Can we go back to pre-ai shit where if I search "vintage yellow gold earrings" it'll just fucking bring whatever is up in that category and not what the fucking algorithm thinks I want?