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Hilltop Algorithm & LLMs

By Roland Girouard, 1 minute read, updated

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Hilltop Algorithm & LLMs: Why a 2003 Search Algorithm Still Echoes in Modern AI Reasoning

  • By Roland Girouard
  • Published
About this article

In 2003 Google’s Hilltop algorithm found expert pages by checking which independent, on-topic hub sites linked to them. Today’s large language models never look at links, yet they also favor ideas that many independent sources agree on. Roland Girouard compares the two and explains what that means for being found by search engines and AI.

What you will learn

  • How Hilltop used expert and hub pages to judge authority
  • How LLMs like GPT-4, Claude and Gemini decide what to say
  • Five principles the two systems share, and where they differ
  • Why consensus across independent sources matters for AI visibility

Read the full article about Hilltop Algorithm & LLMs: Why a 2003 Search Algorithm Still Echoes in Modern AI Reasoning

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