TJ Vasquez
A couple of months ago, Google announced a new core update that the developers were applying to the search engine algorithm, and because Google’s developers are often quite vague when providing details about the components of their updates, many marketers and business owners are stuck wondering what the future holds for their SEO strategies.
Let’s explore.
What’s Included in Google’s Update?
The core update that Google released in May of this year was aimed at website content and how Google’s search engine algorithms assess such content. The update specifically targets content that was written and posted on websites with the express goal of optimizing search engine rankings.
For years, Google has stated that they prefer ranking sites that present the most relevant and helpful content for the site’s visitors. According to Google’s developers, the update was organized and launched in an effort to ensure that the right content reaches the right audience.
The Impact on Search Engines
Much like the core update that launched in November of last year, this update’s effects were noticed quite quickly by both business owners and the analytical teams at SEMrush and RankRanger. According to the analysis provided by both organizations, rank volatility increased significantly after both updates were rolled out. In fact, according to SEMrush’s Communication Advisor, this is the third consecutive core update to increase search engine rank volatility.
Following the May update, analytical data from the SEMrush Sensor Tool shows that approximately 17% of the ranked results in the top 20 positions reached these new rankings coming from the 20th position or beyond. Average position changes between the November 2021 update and the May 2022 update went from 3.31 to 3.55.
Retail and real estate businesses appear to be the most affected by the recent core update.
What Does This Mean for Businesses?
In brief, the core update aims to pull the most relevant and useful content to higher-ranking positions while possibly pushing content created for the sole purpose of ranking to lower positions.
This could mean a couple of things for marketing teams and business owners. Pieces of content that were originally focused on ranking high may need to be restructured in order to enhance the content’s overall message, showcase the importance of the content, and reflect the desires and communicative styles of the company’s audience.
Keyword usage and link building are not going to be so important in terms of trying to rank higher anymore, and instead, the content’s merit needs to stand on its own feet.
While adjusting to these new metrics may be challenging, business owners and marketing teams are in a unique position. By truly understanding what a business’s customer base wants, delivering that information to them has the potential to add value to the content created.
Bonus: Adjustment Tips
To meet and overcome the challenges that May’s core update has introduced, try the following adjustment tips:
- Follow the E-A-T Principles: E-A-T is an initialism for Expertise, Authority, and Trust. Develop content that demonstrates knowledge in your field, comes from a place of authority, and reminds audiences that your content is trustworthy.
- Don’t Get Preoccupied with Volatility: It’s not uncommon for pages to change rankings after a core update has rolled out. Focus on improving your content and the volatility will likely stabilize in due time.
- Take Advantage of FAQ Snippets: According to Crowd Content, the FAQ Snippets that provide brief answers in Google search results are populating approximately 23% more often than they did before.
- Learn from High-Ranking Competitors: Visit competitors in your industry if they happen to rank higher than you. Compare your pages to theirs and determine whether your pages provide information with the same relevance and depth as your competitors.
- Perform Content QA: When editing past content and creating future content, ask yourself a series of QA questions before publishing your work. For example: Is the content mobile-friendly? Is it well-organized and free from too many distracting ads? Does the content have any spelling, style, or grammar errors? Are SEO keywords used in a way that makes them seem rank-oriented (too many in one section, keywords that create flow and grammar issues, etc.)?
It’s understandably stressful to deal with the changes that come along with technological advancements, especially when those changes affect the visibility of your business. May’s core updates have already led to noticeable disturbances in search engine rankings, but on the bright side, the updates have also provided businesses with the chance to improve their reputations through the creation of compelling, informative content.
