On Monday, November 21, 2022, Google introduced a new centralized page called "A guide to Google Search ranking systems" to make it easier for creators and others to learn about notable Google automated ranking systems. The new page will also help when communicating how their systems work and when updating the systems. In the past, the term "update" has often been used as the name of a particular ranking system such as when they introduced their system to measure page experience which was referred to as the "page experience update". Most recently, they have updated their system that evaluates the helpfulness of content and named it the "helpful content update". These updates can be found on Google's blog. The new guide can be found here.
When making improvements to systems, it can be confusing to differentiate between a system and an update. To simplify this going forward, Google is using language that is more precise. For example, saying "helpful content system" instead of "helpful content update". Additionally, their help pages will be refreshed to reflect this terminology change.
To further explain their ranking systems, Google has created several helpful pages this year, such as the List of Google Search Ranking Updates. This page provides website owners with information about the latest ranking updates made to Google Search.
Google Search is constantly updating its core ranking systems, helpful content system, product reviews system and spam detection systems, with the goal of making sure only the best content is being served to its users. To help website owners stay up to date with all of these changes, Google has created a few resources to provide guidance.
The first resource is Google Search's core updates and your website. This outlines how updates to its core ranking systems work as well as how website owners can assess and potentially improve their content. Similarly, Google Search’s helpful content update and your website explains how its helpful content system works and provides guidance for assessing and improving content. Additionally, Google Search’s product reviews update and your website showcases how their product reviews system operates as well as strategies for evaluating and optimizing content. Finally, Google Search spam updates and your site outlines the details behind their spam detection systems with advice on assessing content quality.
Finally, Google has also created a new resource called Google Search Essentials. This is designed for those who are just beginning on their journey with Google Search; it covers all the basics one needs to get started. If there are any questions or feedback about any of these documents or resources in general, there is a post in theSearch Central Help Community ([forum post in the Search Central Help Community](https://support.google.com /webmasters /thread /189579453)) where people can leave comments or questions or they can send feedback directly by clicking on the “Send Feedback” button at the bottom of each page in this documentation hub