{"id":419,"date":"2024-04-22T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-22T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cherylroll.com\/structure-consume-learn-retire-google-pattern-learning-439753\/"},"modified":"2024-04-22T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T13:00:00","slug":"structure-consume-learn-retire-google-pattern-learning-439753","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherylroll.com\/structure-consume-learn-retire-google-pattern-learning-439753\/","title":{"rendered":"Structure, consume, learn and retire: Google\u2019s pattern of learning"},"content":{"rendered":"
Over the years, Google has seemingly established a pattern in how it interacts with the web. The search engine provides structured data formats and tools that allow us to supply information to Google. Think: meta tags, schema markup, the disavow tool and more. <\/p>\n
Google then consumes and learns from this structured data deployed across the web. Once sufficient learnings are extracted, Google then retires or de-emphasizes these structured data formats, making them less impactful or obsolete.<\/p>\n
This cyclical process of giving structured data capabilities, consuming the information, learning from it and then removing or diminishing those capabilities seems to be a core part of Google’s strategy. <\/p>\n
It allows the search engine to temporarily empower SEOs and brands as a means to an end – extracting data to improve its algorithms and continually improve its understanding of the web. <\/p>\n
This article explores this “give and take” pattern through several examples.<\/p>\n
The pattern can be divided into four stages:<\/p>\n
The race is for the search engine to learn from webmasters’ interactions with Google’s suggested structure before they can learn to manipulate it. Google usually wins this race.<\/p>\n
It doesn’t mean no one can leverage new structural items before Google discards them. It simply means that Google usually discards such items before illegitimate manipulations become widespread.<\/p>\n
In the past, meta keywords and meta descriptions played crucial roles within Google’s ranking algorithms. The initial support for meta keywords within search engines actually predates Google’s founding in 1998.<\/p>\n
Deploying meta keywords was a way for a webpage to tell a search engine the terms for which the page should be findable. However, such a direct and useful bit of code was quickly abused. <\/p>\n
Many webmasters injected thousands of keywords per page in the interest of getting more search traffic than was fair. It quickly led to the rise of low-quality websites filled with ads that unfairly converted acquired traffic into advertising income.<\/p>\n
In 2009, Google confirmed<\/a> what many had suspected for years. Google stated:<\/p>\n