The Latest Google Algorithm
Is the addition of the Hilltop algorithm sufficient to explain what happened during the Florida update and how Google is calculating current rankings? Let’s examine it.
The Hilltop Algorithm
Hilltop is the patented algorithm provided for Google’s use by its creators, Krishna Bharat and George A. Mihaila of the University of Toronto. It is an algorithm that finds so-called expert documents that appear to have authoritative value with respect to particular keyword topics. These documents then become “mini Yahoo directories” of sorts and Google emphasizes the outbound links contained on them.
Hilltop emphasizes the voting power of “authority” sites. They’re often sites/pages that have a high PageRank and a high link reputation for a particular set of keywords. It’s suggested that sites not having links from these authorities won’t rank well for important keyword searches. The boost you got from Yahoo or ODP may diminish to replaced by countless other “authority sites.” Is this is happening, the Google index will be very unstable.
Hilltop is a snap-on factor that feeds the best topic-specific sites into the full Google algorithm equation. Some suggest that Hilltop is built right into PageRank, actually affecting the PR of sites in the Google index.
The revised PageRank calculation is suggested here: {(1-d)+a (RS)} * {(1-e)+b (PR * fb)} * {(1-f)+c (LS)}.
Hilltop would seem to reward a closed loop circuit among Web sites, all revolving around key “expert documents” much like the planets revolve around the Sun. This Web ring type system may be a dead end, since new sites would never appear in the rankings unless they were “approved” by the ring leader. That would make Google’s index less democratic which ironically, was the reason it gained its popularity.
Although Hilltop may be a good solution to a faltering Google index quality, it focuses attention on key Web sites making them the future target of index manipulators.
Will such a new algorithm dredge up all the really good sites that are currently down in the range of 30 to 100 and put them where users can get them? I’ve done some dredging myself in those dark regions and I didn’t find many gold nuggets. If Hilltop is supposed to improve the index quality, it seems much-a-do about nothing. I’ve noticed an increase in affiliate and link spam dominated search results lately. That backs up the supposition that the hilltop creates a closed, self-affirming network of high ranking sites.
>From a general perspective, it would also encourage sinister-type collaboration among corporations to dominate the Google index. If corporations don’t own the expert documents themselves already, they can simply purchase them.
So in some ways, Hilltop may be good medicine for Google while at the same time poison its future.
Expert documents are nothing new. Google has always had an authority site element in its overall ranking algorithm (link reputation), but could Hilltop go further to affect a site’s PageRank? Would that explain the complete disappearance of so many Web sites in the rankings? Wouldn’t those particular sites just fall a little? And why didn’t their PR as indicated in the Google toolbar fall as well?
A few people observed that most of the sites affected had a lower than 5 PageRank. Did Google only apply the penalties to sites with lower PageRank? Something’s just not jiving here. It could be it’s not a PageRank thing, but rather a link reputation factor.
Conclusion: Google is using Hilltop, but how it is implemented still remains unclear.
More Inconsistencies
Another inconsistency about how Hilltop may be implemented in Google is this; that affected sites still ranked high for other, related two, three or four word searches is because Hilltop couldn’t find an authority site for the those keyword phrases, to pass into the equation. Why can’t Hilltop find authority sites for those other keyword phrases? It couldn’t have looked very hard. Did Google only apply Hilltop to a predetermined set of keywords or was it only applied to a certain range of two or three keyword phrases? My own research during that time showed that 4 keyword phrases were being affected. So, it is difficult to know for sure what is going on.
The Infamous Hit List
Conspiracy theorists have suggested that the new rankings were affected by a hit list of commercial keywords, chosen because of their popularity and their relation to online commerce. If users couldn’t rank in the free editorial results, they would be forced to buy Adwords ads. Hilltop pundits suggest that there never was any filter involving a hit list. Still others said that Google’s new over-optimization penalties could explain some of the new results. We’ll get into that in a moment. It is odd that all of these appear to play a role, and that they were implemented full scale at the same time. That’s quite a beta test for Google to run full scale at the most important time of year for commercial sites.
One additional theory is that Google doesn’t own the rights to the original algorithm and can’t launch an IPO until it’s search engine is free and clear of all liens. Stanford University may own the rights and therefore Stanford’s are Google’s debts unless Google gets an original algorithm of its own.
One interesting characteristic of the Florida Update (that I discovered), was that some sites with the target keywords in the domain name were completely absent in the top 100 rankings. For instance, domains that had the keywords search engine optimization in them didn’t rank in the top 100 on searches for search engine optimization. Right away, you’d think Google was penalizing sites with keywords in the domain name. However, many high PageRank sites didn’t seem to be affected by this peculiar result. Could hilltop be the cause or was PageRank the pivotal factor.
With the end of the full-scale Florida update, most affected sites have returned to the results pages. Did Hilltop all of a sudden find more 3 and 4 keyword authority sites or did it just dump the 2-keyword authority sites it had been using? Did they just turn off Hilltop for now? A little confusing, especially since the transitions in Google rankings were slow and it made it difficult for algorithm analysts to figure out which factors were at work. Google’s making it tough.
There are rumors that the other search engines are following suit on the use of anti-optimization penalties including penalizing affiliate/multiple domain spam which is very popular now. It makes sense for them to use any technique to rid their indexes of spam. Interestingly, spam practices now appear to focus on the Hilltop factor. I now of one ring of Web sites all owned by the same SEO person. He’s using the affiliate site technique perfectly. Creating your own authority site is all the rage!
Whatever Google decides to do, search engine optimization professionals will have a more difficult challenge and only the best will be able to produce good results. They just kicked it up a couple of notches!
Gord Collins has been offering top notch search engine optimization services since 1999 and has authored two books on SEO techniques. Gord is a frequent reader of Web Pro News.
