Freshness Systems: How Google Prioritizes Recent Content For Trending Topics

In today’s scenario, when you search for a topic, the most precise, trending and recent results are often shown first followed by others. But this wasn’t the case during the early days of Google. Have you ever wondered how it’s possible now? It all started with the Google Freshness update which was made live in 2011. This ranking algorithm was a significant one that introduced the trend of providing precise, recent results to user queries and also changed the way how websites ranked. 

However, the most significant change this update introduced was the ability to add time as a relevance measure for search queries. This allowed the search engine to display search results based on trending ones, regularly occurring or results with frequent updating. What is freshness factor? Let’s dive in and understand more about this in detail.

The Birth Of The Freshness

According to Google’s official blog post, the Google content freshness algorithm was announced on November 3, 2011. The search engine giant’s commitment to providing users with precise trending results didn’t start with the freshness algorithm. It all started way back with the Caffeine update, launched in 2009. This update introduced major infrastructure changes and brought a massive overhaul to the search engine’s indexing system. These changes made it possible for the introduction of the freshness algorithm.

So what is the Google freshness update? It’s an algorithm that prioritizes showing the most recent and updated results to users’ specific search queries. When websites with freshly updated content are prioritized to be shown first, the older outdated ones even though they are highly ranking pages are ranked down in SERPs. Even though providing fresh results is important, not all web content has to be fresh. For example, for which of the following queries should Google provide users with updated results? 

• Top 10 Digital Marketing Tools for 2025
• Best cat breeds that require minimal care

In the first scenario, the content needs to be fresh and relevant to users. This is because the top digital marketing tools for next year may not be the same as it was last year. However, in the second case, it will more likely written as a well-researched topic that won’t need any relevant changes. So, the point is if you have highly-ranking web content that doesn’t require any changes, there’s no reason to update them for the frequent update freshness factor.

Factors determining freshness for trending topics

Before we get on to that, did you know how the freshness algorithm got the “freshness” name? The term was already mentioned in the official blog announcement post and since has been taken. Now that you know what Google freshness update is, how does the search engine determine the freshness of the content? 

One factor is using the Query Deserves Freshness (QDF) algorithm. For those who don’t know, this ranking algorithm was introduced in 2007 by Amit Singhal, former senior vice president at Google Inc. The primary objective of this re-ranking algorithm was to determine when users want new information. 

For eg, if any new information or topics are either being discussed creating a buzz, or becoming trending, there will be automatically a surge in new user queries. This is when the QDF algorithm comes into play. Another factor is time relevance. These ranking algorithms have allowed Google to categorize user queries based on various time-related relevance factors which are described below:

• Recent events: These search queries relate to the most recent news, trending events, or any information that has been recently gaining traction. Examples include news, Google’s top stories, etc.

• Regular events: These types of news or events are updated periodically. Some examples include annual events like elections, sports, IT, TV shows or any upcoming fintech event, etc.

• Frequent updates: These search queries are usually information or topics that aren’t trending or recent but are frequently updated to deliver the best results when searched.

Difference Between QDF And Freshness Algorithm

Even though it was explained that Query Deserves Freshness was a ranking factor for checking the freshness of the content, how does it differ from the Google Freshness update? Let’s get into that. Unlike the freshness update, the QDF algorithm came out in 2007 while the latter came out in 2011. 

Both of them are considered by Google when it comes to deciding whether to display users with fresh information but they function differently. The freshness algorithm is much more broad while QDF is more focused. If the former analyses all information on the web to find out which of them are recent, the latter analyses a specific search type and predicts which results are most likely to be recent.

Google Freshness and Evergreen content

As explained in the earlier part of this article, not all web content needs to be fresh as most of them are evergreen. As the name implies, evergreen content is information for user queries that doesn’t change at all. An example of evergreen content is cooking recipes. Despite the varieties in ingredients and styles, the making process is relatively unchanged. The freshness algorithm only comes into play if the search query falls into one of the three-time relevance categories.

Optimizing Your Website for Google Freshness

Now that you have learned about the freshness algorithm and got the answer to the question, “What is freshness factor?” from the previous sections, let’s see how you can use it to optimize your web pages for search intent and rankings. 

Thankfully, it’s pretty simple to do that. You can start by publishing new content regularly on your website and updating the content for certain existing topics. If your website consists of topics related to changing consumer trends, recent events, etc, updating them over time is crucial. 

The good side of this approach is that you will start getting high levels of traffic, depending on the content’s relevance and freshness. However, once the trending period goes down after a couple of weeks, your updated content may not be fresh anymore. Therefore, when updating content, it’s important to find out if it falls into one of the three freshness categories or if it’s evergreen.

It’s generally a good idea to have a mix of fresh and evergreen content on your website so that it becomes relevant or useful to people readers searching for both content types.

Winding up

As we wrap up, it is important to understand that the Google freshness update is just one of the many ranking signals that Google takes into account to determine a website’s ranking in the SERPs. Having fresh content does give a boost in rankings, it is important to have a solid content strategy that involves publishing regular fresh content along with authentic evergreen content, updating existing ones with relevant data, and more. Speaking about content strategies, you can consult the best digital marketing agency in Dubai for the best possible results.