7 takeaways from the SMX Next keynote with Hyung-Jin Kim, VP Search at Google - Search Engine Land

It’s rare to hear about the inner workings of Google’s rankings, new products and algorithm updates straight from the source.

We were lucky to get that this morning at SMX Next, as Hyung-Jin Kim, the VP of Search at Google, candidly shared some perspectives about the direction of Google’s algorithms and the critical focus on satisfying user intent.

From the importance of E-A-T to the history of Google updates, Kim shared many important insights about how Google search works.

Here are seven of the most important takeaways from the SMX Next keynote.

1. The relationship between webmasters, SEOs, and Google is one of a partnership

SEOs don’t always have the best reputation. It’s also common to hear SEOs claiming that Google is against them, particularly when it rolls out major algorithm updates.

But according to Kim, the relationship between webmasters, SEOs, and Google is more of a “partnership.” All parties are interested in improving the experience for the user (as long as you’re doing the type of SEO Google recommends in its guidelines; not the kind that directly violates those guidelines!).

2. E-A-T is pervasive throughout everything Google does

When asked about whether E-A-T only matters for specific queries – particularly the queries Google refers to as YMYL (your money, your life) – Kim stated:

“E-A-T is a template for how we rate an individual site. We do it to every single query and every single result. It’s pervasive throughout every single thing we do.”

Hyung-Jin...

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