The Hilltop Algorithm is a search engine algorithm developed by Google in the early 2000s to rank web pages based on their authority and relevance to a given topic.
This algorithm was designed to identify “expert” pages that are frequently linked to by other relevant pages on the same subject.
Key points about the Hilltop Algorithm:
- Expert pages: The algorithm aimed to find and rank “expert” pages that are considered authoritative sources on a specific topic.
- Topical relevance: It focused on the relevance of the linking pages to the topic of the linked-to page, rather than just the quantity of inbound links.
- Neighborhood pages: The algorithm considered the “neighborhood” of pages surrounding the linked-to page, evaluating the quality and relevance of the linking pages.
- Link weighting: Links from high-quality, authoritative, and relevant pages were given more weight than links from less relevant or lower-quality pages.
- Query-specific: The Hilltop Algorithm was query-specific, meaning it ranked pages differently based on the search query, taking into account the relevance of the page to the specific topic.
While the Hilltop Algorithm was an important development in search ranking, it has since been incorporated into Google's more comprehensive search algorithms and is no longer a standalone ranking factor.