What is the impact of Google’s latest broad core update on your brand’s SEO
Google has now rolled out its first broad core algorithm update for 2022. The previous core update was made in November 2021 core update, so over six months ago.
The Google statement said, “Several times per year, we make substantial improvements to our overall ranking processes, which we refer to as core updates. Core updates are designed to increase the overall relevancy of our search results and make them more helpful and useful for everyone”. They went on to say that it will take approximately one to two weeks to fully roll out, as the update was announced on May 25; this means we can expect that the update will be in full effect by mid-June.
Reflecting on previous Google core updates
- As mentioned, the November 2021 core update was the most recent Google core update
- The update before that was released in July 2021 core update.
- June 2021 was the prior one, and it took a while to roll out fully since it was quite a large update.
- December 2020 marked the core update before this one, which was a very large update
- The last update to that was in May 2020 core update, and it was a bit smaller than December but still relatively large and broad-ranging; it took approximately two weeks to roll out fully.
- Before that, there was the January 2020 core update.
- The update before that was the September 2019 core update. That update was reported as weaker by a range of SEOs and webmasters, as it was said that it did not have as great of an impact as previous Google core updates.
Checklist to perform after a Google update
Some site owners may notice that their SEO performance suffers after an algorithm update, which can be a frustrating moment. Core updates have the potential to be especially painful to your site if you had pages that you had managed to achieve page one on Google for keywords that are valuable to your business and then you noticed that they had dropped to page two, or even in some cases they might have been stopped being promoted completely.
Regarding algorithm updates, here are some steps site owners should take to respond to the update to help safeguard your website:
- Track if your rankings were impacted. There are several tools you can use to measure the impact of algorithm updates on your SEO performance. Accessing your Google Search Console account is an excellent place to start since it is a Google tool, and it is possible to create a free account so you can begin monitoring your site’s SEO performance. Other tools will give you the ability to track keyword rankings. It’s important to note that Google updates are typically rolled out across the space of a few weeks. During those rollout periods, websites may witness temporary drops in their keyword rankings, but this may not result in permanent reductions in site visibility over the long term.
- Research information about the update. Though Google does not reveal general details regarding each update, it typically communicates what core ranking factors the update will focus on and offers some overall guidance for webmasters in their Search Central blog.
What to do if your SEO is impacted?
The first step is not to panic. If your website has been around long enough, it is likely to happen to your site at some point, unfortunately. If a core update negatively impacts your website, Google offers some practical advice on things to consider. It’s not a straightforward step-by-step guide on what to do to recover your search ranking; however, in many cases, a negative impact on your search ranking may not indicate anything is wrong with your web pages.
That said, Google offers a list of questions to consider if a core update has hit your site. Google shares that you may observe some recovery between the core updates, but the most noticeable change would be following another core update.
Conclusion
Clearly, Google is a powerful machine; therefore, each time it updates its search ranking algorithms, it may result in your website doing worse, or even better, in the search rankings. Keeping an eye on when Google plans to make these updates will give our businesses something to guide us to help us understand and track if the change in results was due to something you changed on your website or a ranking algorithm update from Google. After Google releases a core ranking update, it is best practice to monitor your analytics and search rankings across the next few weeks.
If you have any questions about SEO or this latest Google update, please feel free to contact our expert team at info@relevantaudience.com for more information.
