Google has confirmed their search ranking algorithm has been updated after webmasters and business owners began noticing altercations in a variety of different areas of search. The updates to the algorithm have affected rankings in the search engine result pages. The update was to release minor improvements and began rolling out in that last few days. Google has confirmed the update saying it was a routine update design to improve relevancy.

What Areas Have Been Affected By The Search Ranking Update?

After some investigation, it appears that this latest update relates to keyword permutations along with doorway pages. The effects of the shakeup have been noticeably experienced in different areas including:

• Mobile search engine results pages
• Websites without schema data
• Websites reliant on doorway pages

So far, it seems that desktop SERPs haven’t been affected as much as mobile. The effect has been noticed across most categories including Reference, Autos and Vehicles, Hobbies and Leisure, Science, Home and Garden, Internet and Telcom, Jobs and Education and Law and Government.

What Are Doorway Pages?

Google doesn’t like doorways as they can direct users of search engines to lots of similar pages in the search results but each result is basically the same. Doorways sites may also lead users to intermediate pages that are not going to be as helpful to the user as the final page. They are pages or websites that are designed to rank well for specific search queries. An example of a doorway website is having one page or website that can be reached via many domain names.

It’s too soon for suggestions on the types of adjustments that are required to help an affected website bounce back from any negative reaction to the update. For now, we suggest monitoring analytics and avoiding knee-jerk reactions until more information is released.