SMX Advanced opened with a bang today when Search Engine Land’s Barry Schwartz interviewed Elizabeth Tucker, director of product management for Google Search.
Here are some highlights from the extensive keynote interview, which included a discussion about creating useful content, Google’s biggest major update ever, why search results can be volatile, and more.
1. What to think about when creating content: help + satisfaction + experience
What should SEOs and content creators think about when creating content to serve the user and rank well in search?
Google’s North Star is getting people results that are satisfying and useful, Tucker said. He paraphrased a well-known quote from NHL legend Wayne Gretzky, which is that as SEOs and content creators, you should skate to where the puck will be, not where it has been:
“Think about what we’re trying to do … and where we’re going and target that. … Think about content that’s useful, satisfying, and has good experiences.”
2. Why you should focus on the big picture
Some SEOs have misconceptions about how ranking works and can get too caught up in technical details, Tucker said.
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to creating great content because great content comes in “many flavors, shapes and sizes,” Tucker said.
His advice? “Focus on the Big Picture”:
“We’re trying to meet people with all these different informational needs with all kinds of different kinds of content and great websites. I worry that when people get bogged down with specific technical details or signals that we may or may not have, it could take away the general question of “is this satisfying content useful? [and] are people going to have a great experience?’”
3. Why did it take 45 days to release the March 2024 Core update
In short, it was a lot of work. Google carefully changed “many different core systems”.
There was “some re-architecting work” to help Google do a better job of serving useful content. This included improving their core systems by bringing in new signals, Tucker said:
“We actually had a mini war room. We were monitoring capacity and latency live in our data centers because it’s unusual for us to roll out so many different changes at once. We did it successfully. “However, there there were a few times we noticed hiccups [e.g., an unexpected capacity issue]. We took a break, slowed down and made sure things were rolling smoothly. So yes, it took 45 days. “We really have to be careful when we’re implementing changes to these large-scale systems that have to operate around the world for billions of queries a day in all languages. We have to do a lot of engineering to make sure that search works successfully.”
Dig deeper. Google to release massive search quality improvements in March 2024 core update and several spam updates
4. Google’s March 2024 Core Update was its biggest core update yet
The March 2024 core update was “unprecedented,” according to Tucker. He agreed that this was the biggest core update in Google’s history.
When he was discussing the update with executives, Tucker was told to “don’t break Google”:
“So we did a couple of different updates to different core systems at the same time. I don’t think we’ve ever done that before. … We took our time and we did it right.” “We didn’t break the search. That was one of our big goals.”
5. Why Google took a week to tell us that the March Core Update was over
The release of Google’s March 2024 Core Update was completed on April 19. So why didn’t Google tell us until April 26th?
Because it was “a pretty complex operation” and Google wanted to be absolutely sure everything had been deployed, Tucker said:
“We wanted to make sure all the changes were fully implemented. … Hundreds of people were involved. So we just have to answer the question of are we done yet? it involved so many different pings and discussions. I think it goes there was a bit of uncertainty at a certain point if we were done.”
6. What caused the 45% reduction in unhelpful content
In March, Google said its search quality improvements would reduce unhelpful content by 40%. Why did that number change to 45% when Google announced that the rollout was complete? Tucker explained:
“Before we release something live to 100% Google traffic, we’re testing in a test environment. Sometimes there can be a slight difference in the performance we see in a test environment compared to a full release .” The numbers I trust are the numbers after 100% of Google traffic has been distributed. And then we took several specific measures [on real live traffic] and obtained consistent numbers. … And that’s where 45% came from. These actual measurements after launch.”
7. How Google defines low quality
Many SEOs and content creators have been frustrated by Google’s unclear definition of “low-quality content.”
Tucker told us that Google didn’t have a formal definition of “quality” when he started working there.
Some lively and sometimes polemical discussions led Google to create a “unifying notion of what quality means.”
This is covered in the Page Quality Rating Guidelines within Guidelines for Search Quality Evaluators document, Tucker said:
“…we rigorously define high quality, low quality, we give examples. And this document is really the basis of how the third-party evaluators evaluated our results for quality. “And I think what makes quality so incredibly difficult is that there’s no easy way to think about it. It’s actually quite a nuanced thing. “Because what you want in a high-quality result for a search com [symptoms of a heart attack], you want really accurate and complete information. It can be very different from what you might think of a search [cute kittens]. You want really adorable kittens. “So we’ve laid it all out in our guidelines for search quality raters. We look at the quality of the primary content. Things like the accuracy of the informational content. Talent and skill. We look at things like on-page experience : Can people easily find the main content? We have EEAT (Experience, Authority, Trust). We have many things that play different roles according to the different types of content. “So look, it’s all there” .
8. What Causes Radical Fluctuations in Google Search Rankings
Google doesn’t release any “baby” core updates: “I think I would know” if Google did, Tucker said.
So what causes volatility in Google Search results at times when Google hasn’t announced an update? Tucker said a bunch of different things will probably happen:
The things people are looking for change radically from day to day. (“A Taylor Swift concert happens and, boom, we’re just seeing radically different traffic.”) Web content is constantly updated. Google’s core systems are constantly updated with varying cadences. Several smaller search improvements may have been released.
Tucker added:
“When we monitor and look at the kind of results we’re showing in Search, what people are engaging with, etc., we see some wild fluctuations even though we don’t change anything.”
9. How many systems are involved in Google core updates?
Tucker said he couldn’t give us “a good number” of how many systems are part of Google’s core updates. “I don’t know. Sorry, there’s no good way to count.”
Why is this? Tucker explained:
“I think if you got five search quality engineers in a room and asked them how many systems we have, you’d get at least 10 answers. … I could give you three different answers myself. “I think sometimes we get into these pointless arguments about what is a signal, what is a system, what are subsystems versus main systems, what are core systems, what are support systems.”
10. Google will not discuss any signals mentioned in the leak
As for the large Google Content API documentation leak, Tucker declined to discuss any specific signals, adding:
“There are bad actors. You know that when we publish a lot of information about how specific signals work, it becomes a vector for abuse. This is also frustrating for me. “I’m a total search quality nerd. I’d love to share more, but we have to be incredibly careful.”
11. Google spokespersons’ statements were “accurate”
Since the leak, some in the SEO community have been furious with Google spokespersons like Danny Sullivan and John Mueller, basically accusing them of lying to us all for years.
While Tucker isn’t aware of every statement made by every Google spokesperson, he told us that the statements he’s aware of “are accurate.” Also, Google’s search systems are constantly changing.
“Things change over time. We’re constantly changing our signals and our systems and how they work because search is really dynamic. “So we’re constantly making changes, and so a statement from 10 years ago may not still be true today. However, I will say that I’m not aware of any inaccurate statement ever made by a Google spokesperson.
12. Google wants feedback from SEOs, content creators, and publishers
Tucker’s message was simple: “We’re listening, we care, we’re keeping feedback.” She added:
“We’re working hard to make sure that Search lives up to the expectations of not only the people who come to Search, but also the creators, the publishers who publish great content there. So we’ll keep working on it. Keep talking to we listen.”
13. SEOs play a vital role in Google Search
SEOs have two wonderful roles, according to Tucker:
Building great websites: SEOs help create great content and page experiences for people, which Google Search can also understand so it can “appear as the best of the web.”
Offering feedbackTucker said SEOs are a group that holds Google to its own “high standards.” So a big shout out and thanks to everyone in the SEO community.”
How to watch the conference
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