Google To Rank Sites Based On Accuracy Of Information

In recent
months,
Google
has
become
increasingly focused towards
the quality of search results
pages. It always was, but
there has been talk of new
ranking signals being
incorporated into the search
engine. Where certain signals
were merely guidelines in the
past, they'll soon geared to
become direct signals. One
example is mobile-friendly
design. Another is security.
This leads us to believe that a
major algorithm update might
be in order pretty soon.
Latest rumors have it that
Google may start counting
the accuracy of information
as a ranking signal.
According to a paper
published by researchers
within the company, it may
now value accuracy over the
quality of backlinks.
Knowledge-Based Trust
Google is working on a
system where it can
determine the
trustworthiness of a page not
by who is linking to it, or how
many incoming links it has,
but by the number of facts it
contains.
How it works
A score, called a Knowledge-
Based Trust score, would be
computed for each page by
cross-referencing the content
with facts stored in Google’s
Knowledge Vault. The
Knowledge Vault is a
database of 2.8 billion facts
extracted from the web, and
is the primary source of
information behind the boxes
that appear on the right side
of some searches.
The more facts contained on
a page, the better it will rank.
In instances where few facts
are found on a page, Google
will check the accuracy of
other content contained on
the site to determine how
well it can be trusted overall.
Reliability?
So far in test conditions,
Knowledge-Based Trust score
has been able to reliably
predict the trustworthiness of
millions of websites. This
sounds impressive on paper,
and I’m sure the SEO
community would appreciate
an alternative to links as a
ranking signal. However, a lot
of questions remain
unanswered.
For one, not every website
exists to report facts, so how
will trustworthiness be
determined in those cases?
Well that’s when the research
paper says Knowledge-Based
Trust isn’t necessarily a
replacement for current
ranking signals, but a
supplement to them.
There is also cause for
concern for pages written
around new technology and
new discoveries, with
information that hasn’t yet
been entered into Google’s
Knowledge Graph. If Google
started to rely on Knowledge-
Based trust to rank web
pages, would it then focus
additional effort on revising
and updating the Knowledge
Graph?
We are eagerly looking
towards Google for answers.
What do you think about this
new development? Share
your views in the comments
section below!