How To React To Google SEO Updates

Google SEO never stands still: the search engine is constantly tweaking and refining its search algorithm. Unnoticed by most people, Google in fact makes such changes on an almost daily basis, and the clear majority of these don’t have any major impact on individual websites’ search engine rankings. They’re simply part of the search engine’s quest to show ever more relevant results to its audiences. But several times a year, Google rolls out one of its core updates, and these do have the potential to affect the way your website is viewed by the search engine.

Luckily, Google is very open about any action website owners need to take, whether that’s to preserve or improve their standing in the search engine results. And with the help of a skilled and forward-looking SEO agency, you can avoid many, if not all, of the potential negative consequences of these updates. Here, we look in more depth at SEO updates by Google and what action you should take.

Why You Should Track Google Algorithm Updates

Run of the mill updates by Google to its algorithm are made behind the scenes and as noted, you may not notice any changes as a result of them. However, every now and then, something does change in SEO Google best practices. Then, with Google’s Core Updates, there can often be a major impact on site rankings and the history of search engine optimisation as a whole. They can impact on your SEO tactics and strategies. They can either hurt or help your conversions, organic search traffic, ROI, revenue, and ranking or visibility. It’s therefore well worth keeping track of what’s on the horizon in terms of Google Updates so you can be ready to implement any necessary changes before they have an adverse effect on your website.

One way to do this is to sign up to receive the latest news from Google on social media sites such as Twitter. It’s also a good idea to keep abreast of what’s happening in the world of organic SEO Google updates via respected commentators in the SEO field. This could include, for example, reading blogs on Search Engine Journal, Moz and Neil Patel’s websites. Additionally, there are also several tools that can help you monitor algorithm updates. These include SEMrush Sensor, Accuranker ‘Grump’ Rating, MozCast, Rank Ranger Rank Risk Index Tool, Algoroo and more.

We should point out that some spokespeople from Google have warned SEO experts that these tools have the potential to be inaccurate. Google keeps its cards close to its chest a lot of the time on what they’re doing and why. However, these sources can provide an early warning that a significant update might be on the way and give advance notice of the potential SEO costs of Google updates.

While it’s not absolutely necessary to track these updates, it’s crucial that you understand the changes that have occurred and adjust your strategies and tactics accordingly. And if you don’t have the time, resources or knowledge to keep abreast of what’s happening in the wider SEO world because you’re too busy running your own business, you can always make sure you’re working with an SEO agency that can do all this on your behalf. Whether you need help in understanding Google search updates or in making adjustments to your strategy, an experienced SEO company will help keep you ahead of the game.

Action If You’ve Been Adversely Affected By An Update

If you’ve been dipping your toes in the world of SEO for a while now, you’ll know that it’s often been said repeatedly that there is “no fix” for websites that are negatively impacted by SEO Google algorithm updates. However, good SEO experts still continue to apply various website adjustments, not just to take care of the issues that arise from such updates, but also to discover whether there have been any positive outcomes.

How to recover from a negative impact

Websites that are negatively hit by a Google algorithm update are likely to experience a decrease in organic traffic. The good news is that it’s not impossible to recover from this. The important thing is to pinpoint as many potential problems within a website as possible and get to work on fixing them. However, like implementing SEO generally, it will take time to see the results of any changes you make and to attain a Google website ranking improvement, so the key advice here is to be patient.

One common denominator among negatively affected websites

There is typically no single factor that causes websites to experience negative effects and a drop in your SEO position on Google following a broad core algorithm update. But the most common areas to look at if you have suffered a significant drop in your rankings are having low-quality content, providing a poor user experience, and having a bad reputation among your target audiences.

It’s worth noting that these are all areas that you should be continually working on in any case, so you might not even have to do anything different. Just keep on aiming to boost your website ranking in Google by crafting engaging, informative content that’s fully optimised. Work on the functionality of your website so pages load quickly, appear as visually appealing on mobile devices as they do on desktops and provide a logical path your visitors can follow from initial landing pages to calls to action and, for example, placing an order or signing up to receive more information. Deal appropriately with technical SEO aspects such as crafting accurate and engaging SEO Google description tags to ensure the search engine can crawl and index your site appropriately. And pay attention to attracting high-quality authoritative backlinks to raise your own website’s profile and reputation.

Addressing the negative effects

Because there’s no real quick fix for any negative effects from an SEO Google Console core update, it’s advisable for SEO companies and webmasters alike to use Google as their prime source of information in order to understand their situation properly. As far as Google algorithm updates are concerned, the search engine has always said that websites suffering from poor results are likely only to see the evidence of their recovery once the next core update has been rolled out. So if you’ve implemented major improvements to your website, bear this in mind. Again, make sure you’re working with reliable providers of SEO services if you want to see changes in how your website performs and ranks on search engine results pages.

Example: The Effects Of Google Algorithm Updates On Pirate Websites

Key algorithm updates that Google launched in 2020 were reported to reduce traffic to pirate websites. Analysis by SEO experts on Google’s first two core algorithm updates, launched on 13 January and on 4 May 2020, concluded that pirate websites lost almost a third of their search traffic between December 2019 and November 2020 compared to the previous years’ figures.

SEO professionals confirmed their research data by speaking to one of the biggest torrent websites about the significant drop of search traffic among pirate sites. Without comparing or sharing their findings, the torrent website reported that its own Google search traffic had a 35 per cent decline over the past year, which confirms it likely that all pirate websites would have seen the same effect in their own SEO Console Google results.

However, it’s likely that the global pandemic was also a major contributor to the decline in search traffic to pirate sites. Figures were already following a downward trend from January 2020 onwards, worsening significantly in May and the months following. One explanation for this could be that, compared to previous years, 2020 saw much less content being posted online, which also reduced the volume of content that websites could pirate. For instance, only a limited number of blockbuster movies were released for download, and in the music industry, many artists had to put their projects on hold due to lockdown restrictions on movement. What’s more, most of the trending TV series during this time were aired on streaming websites.

So it’s likely that the drop in volumes of organic traffic to pirate websites was not just due to algorithm updates from Google, but also because of decreased interest from users. Although there was a huge possibility that Google’s core algorithms had a major effect on pirate websites, it still makes sense that they would lose search traffic due to external factors that may have affected their SEO.

Take Action To Enhance Your Website Ranking In Google

Action to improve your website’s SEO should never just be reactive, with changes implemented only when your SEO strategies are proven to be lacking. Instead, SEO should be handled proactively and on an ongoing basis. Here at Position1SEO, we make sure our techniques and methods are up-to-date not only with Google’s algorithm system updates, but also with current best practice throughout for both organic and paid SEO Google. We use our extensive knowledge of SEO and the industry generally to guide you towards the best marketing strategies for your website.

By enhancing your SEO, you can boost your brand visibility and reputation, reach out to larger audiences and convert more and more of your website visitors into paying customers. If you’d like to know more about how we work, email us at office@position1seo.co.uk and get a free SEO audit of your website! You can also speak with one of our talented team by calling 0141 846 0114.