Google is working tirelessly to keep search results as relevant as possible for its users. In this effort, it brings regular updates to its search algorithms. On average, it is believed that Google releases over 3000 updates every year and the number has only gone up given the increase in the penetration of the internet.
Now as a webmaster, every Google update is important but a very few are crucial. While it is not possible to keep track of all the changes and updates, you still have to be aware of major core updates from Google to proactively work on your content and websites. The fiasco that happened recently with the Dailymail.co.uk after the core update of June 2019 that took a different approach towards E-A-T (Expertise, Authority, and Trust), points out the vulnerability of the websites to lose with any Google update.
In the case of Dailymail.co.uk, no SEO or webmaster is fully aware of what went wrong. But a website that was once “the most visited English-language newspaper website in the world, with over 11.34m visitors daily in August 2014,” according to Wikipedia, lost 50% of its web traffic after the June 2019 Google update. According to Jesus Mendez, SEO Director of DailyMail.co.uk, “The day after the broad core algorithm update (June 3rd) we saw a massive drop in Search traffic from Google (lost 50% of daily traffic). This was a drop over the course of 24-hours and we have not made any changes to the site. Further, we saw our Discover traffic drop by 90% and has not improved. This is across all verticals, devices, AMP and Non-AMP. ”
There you have it- there is no way to escape the Google updates whether you are a large corporate or a solo blogger.
What one can do?
Your best bet is to be aware of the Google changes and updates that matter. Learn from what the update is about, who are affected by it and what the updates mean for you.
SeoEaze is committed to helping you stay unaffected by the fluctuations in Google ranking algorithms which is why we always keep a close lookout on signals that might indicate any update or change. If we consider this year, then two major updates were released one in June 2019 that affected the YMYL websites mostly and changed the way we looked at online reputation management. Another major change Google brought was to drop support for no-index and no-follow link attributes in robots.txt file. Noindex is further refined with two new link attributes rel=” sponsored” and rel=”ugc”.
But these are not the only Google updates you need to focus on.
Here is an infographic from SeoEaze that highlights all the major updates that took place in last one year, i.e. 2018-2019 till now. We have also shared some useful tips to deal with the updates if you are adversely affected or wish to use the latest Google changes for your benefit.
7 Biggest SEO Changes by Google 2018-19 (Infographic)
