As mentioned in our last post on Korea, NHN Corp. released a press statement at the end of November, announcing the release of the algorithm update ‘Libra’ for Naver. One week later, Naver itself wrote an official post on its main blog about the implementation of the new algorithm.

The official implementation started on December 4, and the algorithm especially aims at two main points: better text analysis and inclusion of the credibility of the source. Over the years, Naver analyzed the common points of satisfying and unsatisfying blog posts and implemented the results in the logic behind ‘Libra’. Due to these results it is now possible to identify high quality blog posts and credible blogs and give them preference in the rankings.

At this time, the new algorithm will not be applied for all search results. Rather, keywords which are prone to manipulated search results, and thus are known as having very unsatisfying results for the users (e.g. ‘good restaurants in…’), are going to be prioritized. Around 1.5%-2% of all keywords are going to be affected at the first stage of implementation, according to Naver.

Moreover, the biggest Korean search engine released another official post with a guideline on how to become a credible blog and how to write high quality, hence well ranking, blog posts. The guidelines also gives some hints on which factors would negatively influence the ranking of a blog post.

However, Naver also points out that it cannot give away all information on the ranking factors, as this would only induce manipulation, which is one of the things Naver wants to wipe out with the new algorithm in the first place.

My next post will go through some of the finer details of the algorithm changes, particularly what factors Naver considers as good or bad. Hopefully, it will prove useful for your search activity in Korea and help explain some of the perceived myths.