The Basque language regains visibility in Google searches

  • Google updates the algorithm it uses in searches following the complaints made by the PUNTUEUS Foundation last July.
  • After reviewing the sample analysed in the internal study, it can be affirmed that the number of results in Basque is 73%, compared to 50% in July.

Google has listened to PUNTUEUS. The PUNTUEUS Foundation is working to ensure that the presence of the Basque language has a prominent place in the digital sphere, and the research, work and complaints made in recent months have yielded positive results.

In fact, after a few months in which the visibility of the Basque language had been considerably reduced in the Google search engine, the Basque language is once again regaining its visibility and occupying relevant positions.

In the analysis carried out by PUNTUEUS when it detected the problem, it was identified that the Google search service discriminated against Basque in favour of Spanish. At that time, only 50% of the search results for websites in Basque appeared in Basque in the first place.

PUNTUEUS made the results of the study available to Google in order to recover the presence of Basque in the search engine, and it has succeeded in doing so. Google has today published a note explaining the update of its search engine algorithm with the intention of treating languages more appropriately, thanking the organisations with which it has collaborated, such as PUNTUEUS, for their contribution.

As a result, Basque has begun to regain the visibility it deserves in Google search engine results. Thanks to the modification of the algorithm, and following the revision of the sample analysed by PUNTUEUS in its study, 73% of the results in Google searches now appear in Basque, compared to 50% last July.

Positive news

“It is a pleasure to see that Google has listened to the Basque Internet community and has taken steps to restore the Basque language’s rightful place in its search engine. We at PUNTUEUS will continue to work to ensure that Basque is a leading language in search engines and in the digital environment in general”, explained Josu Waliño, director general of the PUNTUEUS Foundation.

In the case of Wikipedia in Basque, it is also confirmed that the data have improved. If we look at the results from two months ago, only 45% of Wikipedia results in Basque were prioritised in Google searches. After the changes in the algorithm, the results in which Wikipedia in Basque appears in the first place are 80%.

One of the starting points for the concern and subsequent complaint was the study carried out by the Aliança per la Presència Digital del Català (Alliance for the Digital Presence of Catalan).

As the coordinator Albert Cuesta explained at the press conference in July, the influence of Google’s algorithm on the visibility of Catalan was analysed, and from the spring of 2022 onwards it was concluded that results in Spanish were being prioritised and those in Catalan were being punished. Today, as in the case of Basque, Catalan has taken an important step towards recovering its position on the Internet thanks to Google’s update.