How Google tests new content in the search results

This article is a case study that shows how Google ranks new content for different keywords to test its quality.

We anecdotally know that Google is continuously testing content and shuffling the search results, but it’s tough to find hard data about it. I used Ryte to pull all available data from Search Console to show how Google tests the relevance and quality of content at the hand of three articles.

Google tests new content on different positions for all queries it deems relevant. Interestingly, this understanding is very imprecise at first and then gets better over time. Content first ranks for many queries on lower positions, and then for fewer queries at higher positions if the content is of high quality.

I looked at three articles from my blog and used Ryte to pull Search Console data for this small analysis. Ryte also tells me which outliers outperform the average CTR and how many URLs rank for the same keyword - super useful. Of course, take it with a grain of salt because n = 3 isn't much.

We see the same pattern over and over: a sharp spike followed by a drop and a gradual increase (if things go well). Note that the screenshots below show the number of keywords for the URL.

Example 1: Why I left Substack and the email renaissance

Total number of keywords for my GPT 3 article in Ryte

Example 2: Internal linking - the full guide to internal link axioms

This behavior creates natural volatility in the search results. Google constantly shuffles the results, measures the impact, and then recalibrates. The higher a query ranks, the lower the chance for it to drop again, but it's not impossible.

Compare the rankings of the two keywords, "growth levers" and "land and expand saas", for example.

Impressions closely follow the number of keywords. It makes sense: the more keywords you rank for, the more impressions you get.

At the same time, the average position across all queries runs counter to its number in the beginning because new content tends to rank lower until Google figured out where to place it.

Ryte also allows me to track and compare specific keywords that a page ranks or did rank for.

Competitive and high-volume queries often have a sort of "probation period". About two weeks after publishing, the article starts to rank for high-volume queries (see below). Sometimes, they start on page 10 ("internal links audit"), sometimes on page one ("internal links best practices").

Conclusion: content needs to prove itself; nothing is guaranteed

I observed that It takes Google 3-4 days to figure out where content should rank initially. From there, Google keeps testing how the piece of content would perform for different keywords throughout its lifecycle, one impression at a time.