Julian Grainger

Recently the inside search blog has become more open about the changes and tweaks made to Google’s algorithmic set.

Normally the updates are part of fine tuning classifications in a cluster or group to increase accuracy. However, one update in particular caught my eye:

Link evaluation. We often use characteristics of links to help us figure out the topic of a linked page. We have changed the way in which we evaluate links; in particular, we are turning off a method of link analysis that we used for several years. We often rearchitect or turn off parts of our scoring in order to keep our system maintainable, clean and understandable.

This is a significant change as links and characteristics like anchor text or URL string are ranking factors. But there are questions left unanswered:

1. Is this a go forward only change

2. Which characteristics? Anchor text, placement on page, URL string?

There haven’t been any major changes in the SERPs which means anchor text is still ok, unless this is a “go forward” change only. So my guess is that Google has de-powered exact match domains by removing the domain characteristic in the link from it’s ranking factors.

Having a domain with like “carparts.co.uk” gave instant topical relevance in any links to that site for searches for ‘car parts’.  It has helped provide preferential treatment for a lot of affiliate sites, many of which are pretty awful and useless.

However, this is just a guess, I have no data and there hasn’t been any great out cry on the change. It will be interesting to see what comes out in the bulletin boards and blogosphere.