It’s been about 2 months since Google has implemented In-Depth articles in the search results.  It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the in-depth article results have continued to adjust and fluctuate since then.

In August of 2013, we reported on this new feature and analyzed several dozen keywords and which domains were lucky enough to be featured as an in-depth article.

Out of the 30 queries that we initially tested, there was approximately a 60% change in the results displayed.  In short: the in-depth algorithm can fluctuate just as frequently as the normal algorithm.

For instance, the query “Obama” originally displayed results for:

  1. Esquire
  2. New York Times
  3. Vanity Fair

But now displays results for:

  1. Daily Beast
  2. Vanity Fiar
  3. The Atlantic

On average each SERP had at least 1 result fluctuate, some had 2 and a few had 3.

Brand Queries Being Added

In addition, we are seeing more and more in-depth article results for brand name queries, whereas initially we were primarily seeing results for generic queries (with a few exceptions).

  • Southwest Airlines
  • Tesla Motors
  • Lenovo
  • Intel
  • Target
  • Walmart
  • JCPenney
  • American Apparel
  • Grand Theft Auto
  • New York Times
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • Google+

This is good news for search marketers.  If an article gets enough authority, it may be given a slot in the in-depth article results in the next update.

I’m definitely going to continue to monitor the SERPs for any signs of change in the in-depth article arena.