To make sure Google always displays the most relevant information and results to those that use their search engine, they continually bring out updates to the algorithms so that the way their search engine processes websites makes sure those that copy and are of low quality are not ranked as high organically (and the high quality and original content is rated highest). Back in July 2014, Google brought out their most recent update codenamed ‘Google Pigeon’. Here are the main things you need to know about Google Pigeon.

What is Google Pigeon?

Google Pigeon is the latest algorithm update by Google. It focuses on updating the algorithm used to rank websites by aiming more at how the core algorithms and location algorithms link with each other. This means, in general, that web users will get better results from websites local to them if location applies to what they are searching for. It is the biggest local update Google has ever done so you can be sure it will make quite a large impact.

What Does Google Pigeon Affect?

Google Pigeon will affect both Google Maps Search and Google Web Search since the updates mainly focus at the location side of Google Maps Search and Google Web Search.

However, it will unfortunately affect some normal websites too. There tends to be a trend that websites that have good and original content still get punished by Google’s updates. Google’s updates are not perfect so expect fixes which will make sure normal websites that not hindered because of this website.

The Bugs…

Like with any update, Google are aiming at blocking out spam from search results and improving the ranking of good quality and original content. However, there will always be some bugs that Google will need to address. There were a few reports that some spam websites that were managing to get top spot of Google for some quite crucial keywords. Saying this, considering the update happened in July 2014, we can be sure that Google have probably addressed all of the bugs that occurred with Pigeon.

Ultimately, the update is good: even if it does have its bugs early on. It appears that Google are pushing on with local search which is a good thing to say the least. It will benefit everyone since the whole point of Google’s updates to its algorithms is to benefit the good websites and make the poor websites suffer. However, as we know, some good websites still get trapped by Google into thinking it is a bad website and consequently its organic health plummets. If you were to take one tip away from this article, if you do have a website, make sure your content is high quality, at least 300 words long and original – if the content is out there already, then the likelihood that article will do well will decrease.