Google has just announced an update to it’s search algorithm. Targeted for faster indexing and ranking fresh content higher, Google “Freshness” update impacts nearly 35% of queries. That’s HUGE, considering that Google Panda update affected roughly 12% of results.

The new algorithm change is based up on Caffeine that was released last year with an aim to index the fresh content quickly. Now there’s algorithmic change that makes sure that the most recent content, on topics that often get updated, is ranked on top followed by older results.

Google can detect whether it needs to serve fresh content or otherwise based on query that is typed in, whether or not you provide the specific. For example, when you search for “presidential elections”, its implied that you’re looking for more recent results and are not interested in older results. This is one of the examples that Google quotes in their official blog post announcing the update. Other than that, Google may show fresh results on top for query that falls in any of following categories:

Recent events or hot topics. For recent events or hot topics that begin trending on the web, you want to find the latest information immediately. Now when you search for current events like [occupy oakland protest], or for the latest news about the [nba lockout], you’ll see more high-quality pages that might only be minutes old.

Regularly recurring events. Some events take place on a regularly recurring basis, such as annual conferences like [ICALP] or an event like the [presidential election]. Without specifying with your keywords, it’s implied that you expect to see the most recent event, and not one from 50 years ago. There are also things that recur more frequently, so now when you’re searching for the latest [NFL scores], [dancing with the stars] results or [exxon earnings], you’ll see the latest information.

Frequent updates. There are also searches for information that changes often, but isn’t really a hot topic or a recurring event. For example, if you’re researching the [best slr cameras], or you’re in the market for a new car and want [subaru impreza reviews], you probably want the most up to date information.

On the other hand search results for an old recipe or something that doesn’t have the potential to change overtime, will remain the same.

via Google