Google releases update quite often- usually every day a new update is released. Most of them are very small and you can’t even notice the impact, but then there are also core updates, which are major changes. If you are like me, you are working really hard to keep those rankings going up. But you may wonder, how can you keep up with all of the Google Algorithm updates? And which ones should you really worry about? Let’s discuss this.
Content
When preparing site content, whether it’s pages or blog posts, you should always write with customers in mind. You want to present content that is relevant, quality and user friendly. If you have quality content on your site, then even when core Google update is released, you really don’t have anything to worry about. Yes, your ranking may slightly drop, but that is out of your control. How do you know if you have a quality content? Google posted a series of questions you should ask yourself, when assessing the content. Here are some of them:
Content and quality questions
- Does the content provide original information, reporting, research or analysis?
- Does the content provide a substantial, complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
- Does the content provide insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
- If the content draws on other sources, does it avoid simply copying or rewriting those sources and instead provide substantial additional value and originality?
- Does the headline and/or page title provide a descriptive, helpful summary of the content?
- Does the headline and/or page title avoid being exaggerating or shocking in nature?
- Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
- Would you expect to see this content in or referenced by a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?
Expertise questions
- Does the content present information in a way that makes you want to trust it, such as clear sourcing, evidence of the expertise involved, background about the author or the site that publishes it, such as through links to an author page or a site’s About page?
- If you researched the site producing the content, would you come away with an impression that it is well-trusted or widely-recognized as an authority on its topic?
- Is this content written by an expert or enthusiast who demonstrably knows the topic well?
- Is the content free from easily-verified factual errors?
- Would you feel comfortable trusting this content for issues relating to your money or your life?
Presentation and production questions
- Is the content free from spelling or stylistic issues?
- Was the content produced well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
- Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?
- Does the content have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
- Does content display well for mobile devices when viewed on them?
Comparative questions
- Does the content provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
- Does the content seem to be serving the genuine interests of visitors to the site or does it seem to exist solely by someone attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?
Those questions listed above are great to do content audit, especially if you believe that your rankings dropped after recent Google core update.
Another great resource that may be very handy is search quality rater guidelines. Who are quality raters? They are people that work for Google who check if algorithms provide good results and to make sure that “search engines give results that are helpful for users in their specific language and locale”. Their feedback helps search engines to determine how their algorithms are working and if any changes are needed. Understanding, what they look for in the content and how they determine if content is good, may help business owners analyst their own content and help them to make improvements if needed.
How do you keep up with Google Algorithm Updates?
Every SEO analyst have their own way of keeping up with different updates and to make sure they stay on top of important changes. I will tell y0u about few ways I do it.
- Subscribe to Google Webmaster Central Blog or follow them on Twitter. What better way to know, then to know first hand. Google is pretty good about notifying webmasters about their changes, and you know for sure you are getting accurate information.
- Follow SEO oriented companies, like Search Engine Land. They post about different updates very frequently- whether they are official and confirmed, or suspected. What I like about Search Engine Land is, that you also hear from different SEO analysts around the nation, and you can learn about their feedback and their experience with different changes. After all, more heads are better than one.
- Monitor Visibility Trend with SemRush. They do pretty good job notifying their subscribers about major Google updates. You can see two examples of that in the screen shot below. There were two updates notes by SemRush: July 16th and August 8th. You can click on the letter G, and it will tell you what the update was about. This comes pretty handy, especially that you can also monitor how the update impacted your traffic and visibility trend.
How do you recover after Google Algorithm update
Here is what Google say about that:
Broad core updates tend to happen every few months. Content that was impacted by one might not recover – assuming improvements have been made – until the next broad core update is released.
However, we’re constantly making updates to our search algorithms, including smaller core updates. We don’t announce all of these because they’re generally not widely noticeable. Still, when released, they can cause content to recover if improvements warrant.
So in other words- just keep working on improving your site content, fix any errors you find, and continue monitoring your site traffic. If needed, ask for help! It’s normal that your site may get impacted by an updates. It doesn’t have to mean that there is something wrong with your site, or that your SEO consultant is not doing their job. You will find an interesting Google Webmaster Hangout below, where you can find interesting insight on major updates and how they impact your site.
