What is Hilltop Algorithm?
The Hilltop Algorithm is one of Google’s lesser-known algorithms designed to identify the most credible information and web pages on a given search query. Developed around 2003, it was part of a broader effort to refine how search engines rank content and provide users with more useful and authoritative information.
How Does the Hilltop Algorithm Work?
Google’s Hilltop Algorithm is designed to find and prioritise authoritative content on specific topics:
- Identifying Expert Pages: Hilltop starts by identifying expert pages dedicated to specific topics. These pages are seen as authoritative sources due to their depth of content and the quality of their information.
- Analysing Outbound Links: Expert pages often have numerous outbound links pointing to other reputable sites. Hilltop assesses these links to determine the relevance and authority of the expert page. Essentially, if a page is rich in high-quality outbound links, it’s considered a valuable resource.
- Focusing on Niche Topics: Unlike broader algorithms, Hilltop doesn’t analyse the entire web. Instead, it zeroes in on a select group of expert pages organized by niche topics. This targeted approach helps Google pinpoint the most credible sources within specific fields.
- Evaluating Affiliated Sites: Hilltop also looks at websites with affiliations to each other. However, these links are not factored into the ranking process.
How Did It Effect SEO?
The introduction of Hilltop had quite a significant on SEO. Hilltop was developed to value links from credible and authoritative sources, making these links far more influential in determining a site’s ranking. For example, links from reputable sites like Wikipedia, academic institutions, or well-established niche blogs started carrying more weight.
What About SEO Today?
The Hilltop Algorithm was a game-changer for SEO, introducing key ideas that still matter today— link relevance, topical authority, expertise, and understanding how different sites are connected. It was one of the first times Google started looking at the quality of links, not just how many there were, which has helped shape how websites are ranked now.
Hilltop also introduced the concept of obscuring connections between websites. This led SEOs to adopt practices like using unique IP addresses from unrelated IP blocks, hiding domain ownership, and being more strategic about interlinking their sites.
Large networks of websites owned by a single entity, often consisting of hundreds of interconnected sites, found themselves losing their rankings as the algorithm devalued these manipulative tactics.
The takeaway?
Be careful with linking lots of domains together. Even though penalties for these practices may have evolved with newer algorithms, sites that continue to engage in such manipulative interlinking are still at risk of penalties today.
