What is a Google algorithm and what is its purpose? Algorithms are necessary because, without them, the quality of the search results which are displayed on the search results pages would not match user intent and have the same level of relevance as they do now. Although they roll out countless updates every year, there have been a few major ones that have had some serious impact on websites.
Among the largest updates ever rolled out, we would like to mention two of them: Penguin and Panda. The Penguin Google algorithm update took place in 2012 and it has affected the websites that did something called "over-optimization", which is described as using unnatural links, keyword stuffing and so on. The Panda update started taking place in 2011 and affected websites that used content farms as their business model.
In today's modern age of SEO we can talk about two updates that have been pre-announced by Google: a Site Diversity and a Broad Core Update. Both of them have had an impact on certain websites, based on various factors that were not confirmed by the search engine giant.
A Short Timeline Of The Latest Google Algorithm Updates
The Broad Core Google algorithm update has taken place on the 3rd of June of this year, but not too many details have been given to the general public. The only difference in Google's approach, in this case, would be the fact that the update has been pre-announced. Since it has been rolled out, certain effects have been noticed by webmasters on various websites. It's a known fact that the latest Google algorithm update affects the rank of websites based on hundreds of factors, each of them having a specific order of importance.
Google's Quality Raters Guidelines (3) are just that – a guideline to help improve your website, but it is not enough. The main focus of webmasters should be to create quality content and take all factors into consideration when working on improving their web pages. It's important to realize that there is just no secret weapon for recovering from such an update. All factors matter, even after this Google SERP update, regardless if we are talking about page quality of EAT scores (expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness)
The Diversity Update was rolled out on the 6th of June and it is designed to provide more diversity when people see the top search results on the first search engine results pages. This update has made some tweaks to the algorithm with the purpose of showing different results from various websites. It's great to know that they have had this initiative as until now, the giants in different fields would have had many of the top results redirecting web users to just one main website.
Now, this no longer seems to be the case. Small businesses have a chance at having their URLs ranked high as well. Instead of showing 4 or 5 results from the same domain name, as Google has been doing until the update, their aim is to not show more than 2 different URLs from the same website. However, they also said that they reserve the right to still display more results from the same site if they consider it to be the best choice for the web user.
What Were The Effects Of Broad Core Algorithm Update On Websites?
There have been many changes seen in traffic for many websites. Some general trends can be seen, but are not confirmed. An interesting conclusion is that low-quality news websites may have been affected by the Broad Core update. For example, Daily Mail in the UK and CBS.com in the US have both seen a negative effect taking place after the update was rolled out. The results were quite sudden and have brought other consequences on these site's plate: their competitors have seen a spike in traffic due to being ranked higher than before.
The same seems to have happened for trusted aggregators, which have been outranked by giants like Yellow Pages / YP or Yelp. About 55% of digital publishers gained traffic, while 27% of them have lost traffic. The biggest losers of traffic were the websites that had to do with finance, health, entertainment news, and even the technical sites that publish how-to content, while the winners were the sites with educational resources, sports news, and a few others.
What The Websites That Lost Traffic Have In Common Are The Following:
- When it came to how often they publish new content, they did not do it regularly
- Their main language was not English
- They had affiliate links on every single one of their pages
Google's advice regarding the effects of the updates was pretty clear. Recovering traffic from an update is not just one simple solution. That is why it was called the Broad Core update because it was meant to offer webmasters a better picture of all the factors that need to be improved on a constant basis. Their official take on this whole situation is that after the latest Google algorithm update, there is "nothing to fix".
Conclusion To Grow Your SEO
The key here is that after the Google algorithm update 2023, webmasters have a broad approach when trying to make a website rank higher. There are different reasons why one website ranks higher than another, even if one of them has better content or is better at internal link building. Here are some useful ideas you could work on to achieve a higher ranking:
Don't focus solely on EAT. There are so many other factors that Google is improving, that looking at just these 3 factors will most probably not help your ranking. Maybe there will be an improvement, but not as drastic as you might think.
Page quality is something that you can start with to ensure that no future updates will penalize your website for this specific matter. Also now you need to be concerned with the most recent BERT algorithm update that effects 10% of searches on Google. BERT is big, and some sites and SEOs are already feeling the heat.
Rely on the expertise of an SEO company USA that can perform an in-depth website audit and offer you a clear report on what areas can and need to be improved. Let them handle the work part and reap all of the benefits.
