Google algorithm
The Google algorithm is the set of systems Google uses to pick and order the results for a search, which it changes many times a year.
The Google algorithm is the set of systems Google uses to decide which pages to show for a search, and in what order. People say "the algorithm" as if it were one formula. Google describes it as many ranking systems working together, some that look at whole sites and some that look at single pages.
For a marketer, the algorithm decides how much search traffic you get. And now that Google's AI answers sit inside its search results, it also shapes which pages those answers draw on.
What it looks at
Google doesn't publish its full list of signals, but its guide names many of its systems. Some work out what a search means. Some judge whether a page is helpful, original and reliable. Some look at how pages link to each other, which is where PageRank, Google's oldest system, comes in. Others remove spam, show fresher results for news, and stop one site from filling the whole first page.
How it changes
Google changes its systems all the time, mostly in small ways nobody notices. A few times a year it makes a bigger change it calls a core update, and announces it. Many of the famous names in SEO, like Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird, were updates that have since been folded into Google's core systems.
The algorithm and AI answers
Google says that to show up as a link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, a page has to be indexed and eligible to appear in Google Search with a snippet. There's nothing extra to do. So the pages Google's ranking favours are the pages its AI answers can pick from, and when an update shifts the rankings, those answers can shift too.
For example, after an update Fernhill Coffee's guide to grinders drops from the first page to the third. A week later, the AI Overview for "best coffee grinder for beginners" stops citing it.
In AnswerOrbit
Before and after a date in Recommendations shows your numbers before and after a date you choose, platform by platform. Pick the day an update finished to see what it changed in Google's AI answers, and whether the other platforms moved too.