Ah, the good ole’ days when the churn that stirred organic rankings at the onset of an update to Google’s algorithm settled systematically with inherent precision. These types of Google algo updates were common, leaving many brands to wonder while SEO’s became laser pointed on the remediation efforts to help those in need to recover their rankings and impression share. Those days are over and cross pollination within the algorithm updates require us to change the paradigm. No longer must we ask, “Which algo impacted my search results,” but rather we must explore “Which algos impacted my search results.” The nuanced algo / aglos, that simple “s,” makes all the difference.
Recovering From Google Algo Updates – The New Paradigm
Recently, I was asked to examine a eCommerce site that was suffering from truncation with organic search. Their rankings were impacted, as was their impression share, and hence traffic derived from search. They were curious if a Google algorithm had impacted them. Their suspicions were correct, however, it was not an algo that systemically caused such a large shift within their ranked terms, but rather, a plethora of algos.
When overlayed and pinned to a timeline, the multitude of Google algorithm updates which have occurred in recent months begin to paint a perfect storm for this eCommece company. However, they are not alone. The various algos empowering the SERPs are brand agnostic, they effect all industries, verticals and niches. A definitive strategic SEO roadmap, granular, multipronged SEO services and caffeine are all prudent in forging a path out of this steep decline.
SEO Audit, Fortification and Remediation to The Rescue
Oh, the tangled web-algos we weave. It is no longer enough to live in a silo. Dare I say developers and SEOs must get along?.. A man can dream. But, we must each support one another as we work to untangle, decouple and propel.
Page Experience Update: Have you checked your Core Web Vitals lately? Likely so. Are you mobile indexed first? Again, likely so. We can’t rest on the laurels of our desktop score, and anything below 50 on mobile will not suffice. It is important from the technical side that your site load quickly and satisfy an excellent user experience. This means little to no CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) a snappy, fully responsive experience, minification of JavaScript and an efficient cache policy, to name a few.
Spam Updates – With four in the books in the last six months we must not ignore the definitive importance of ensuring we are in algorithmic compliance. Our pages must not be spammy, after all this type of algo has vetted out over 20+ billion pages from indexation. Malware and malicious injections have crippled sites and it’s important to ensure your sit’s security is up to par. Beyond this, it is equally important that you are not linking to, nor garnering links from, sites with high toxicity and spam score. Backlinks and link building can absolutely propel a site, but if not done right, there can be a serious negative impact. Always explore your backlink profile and stay abreast of your toxicity score.
Core Algorithm Updates: All hail the broad core, as they are impactful. The recent Google algorithm update was a Broad Core update. Google does provide guidance related to broad core algorithm roll-outs and updates. To this end, I shall hand the mic to Google for specifics..
Google’s guidance
- Expect widely noticeable effects, such as spikes or drops in search rankings.
- Core updates are “broad” in the sense that they don’t target anything specific. Rather, they’re designed to improve Google’s systems overall.
- Pages that drop in rankings aren’t being penalized; they’re being reassessed against other web content that has been published since the last update.
- Focusing on providing the best possible content is the top recommended way to deal with the impact of a core algorithm update.
- Broad core updates happen every few months. Sites might not recover from one update until the next one rolls out.
- Improvements do not guarantee recovery. However, choosing not to implement any improvements will virtually guarantee no recovery.
Simply Put – Are you in Google Algo Compliance
Before we begin to put the corner pieces in for strategic SEO services and yes, solutions, we need to first ensure we are in algo compliance. If not we can liken this to cart before the horse. A deep and thorough audit, harnessing data from a multitude of sources to vet out false positives and crystalize a clear and stable foundation, is critical. We must clearly understand the errors before we begin to remediate them and we must completely understand the site structure, content and UI/UX before we propel them.
From sitemaps and SEO Directives that help with indexation and crawlability, to site speed and overarching page experience performance, at a page-level, and of course, the assurance that the site is devoid of spam, on and off-site, allow us to get our arms around a clear, stable foundation that is rooted in Google’s algo compliance.
That my friends is ground-zero. That is where and when we can begin to build. That is how we insulate ourselves from future algos and that is a painstaking, prudent and methodical approach which we all must follow to maximize our organic search presence, rankings and performance.
