Google algorithm updates and what you need to know.
Few businesses can manage without a website and every website needs to get noticed.
SEO is the means through which businesses ensure that their websites appear in search results. Google completely dominates the search engine market with an 87.8% share. This means that what happens at Google matters for every business with a web presence.
Every Google algorithm update can shift the goalposts for anyone looking to ensure that their website features prominently in the most relevant search engine results.
The key to SEO success and a prominent place in the Google search results requires an understanding of the Google Algorithm.
What is it, what does it do, and why do updates matter?
What is the Google algorithm?
Google use algorithms to retrieve data from its search index and to deliver the best possible results for any search query. The search engine combines a variety of ranking factors and algorithms to deliver web pages that are ranked by relevance in its search engine results (SERPS).
What is a Google algorithm update?
Google is continually looking at ways in which it can improve the service it offers to its users. In its early years, Google was a fairly static service with only a handful of updates to its algorithms. Now it makes thousands of updates every year. This ongoing commitment to improving the user experience and the quality of results has seen a 40% decrease in irrelevant results over the past five years.
Google doesn’t like to disclose information about how sites are ranked in an effort to deter people from attempting to game the system, potentially giving lower-quality sites an advantage over more relevant sites. As a result, Google will only usually share details about their major updates.
Three types of Google algorithm update
There are three broad categories of Google algorithm update. Each of these has a variety of potential impacts on search engine results.
Major Updates
Major updates are the most widely understood and communicated updates and usually have a specific purpose. These might even be accompanied by their own micro-algorithm. They are usually implemented in order to address a particular glitch, such as link spam or duplicate content.
In many major updates, Google will inform webmasters of their intentions in advance giving them enough time to update their site. For instance, in June 2020, Google provided information about how Core Web Vitals would become an important ranking factor in 2021. These updates are less frequent, with one or two on average being rolled out each year.
Broad Core Updates
Compared to the specific, focused aspect of major updates, broad core updates are more general in nature and will usually involve a tweak to Google’s main algorithm. While this may at first sound as if it might have a major impact on search engine results, it will usually mean that Google has changed the importance of a few ranking factors.
They might, for instance, have decided that content word count is more important than backlink quality or vice versa. Broad core updates are usually implemented 3-4 times a year.
Minor Updates
Minor updates are happening continually, with thousands of slight refinements of micro-algorithms that are designed to improve the relevance of search results. Because of their frequency, it might be tempting to conclude that minor tweaks don’t matter. Taken together, they can amount to significant changes which, over time, gradually reduce the effectiveness of your SEO strategy in relation to your competitors.
How to prepare for a Google algorithm update?
Each update can have consequences for your website. Even slight changes can make a significant difference to where your website appears in the search results. Therefore, it’s important to keep alert to any updates, whether they’ve been announced or not.
You can gain advance warning by checking news feeds and social media channels that focus on SEO such as this list of SEO experts on Twitter.
You can also use a number of online tools to spot any signs of changes. SEMRush Sensor shows the volatility of search rankings over time to indicate if there may have been a recent algorithm update. Search Engine Journal also provides an updated list of Major Google Updates.
By regularly checking your own search engine performance you can assess whether you’ve been impacted by an update. If you’ve made no significant changes to your website or its content and you’ve found you’ve slid down the rankings, then a Google algorithm update might be the cause.
Professional SEO support from Ketchup Marketing
At Ketchup Marketing, we understand that SEO is an ongoing process, not a one-off event. Our SEO services will help make sure your website is always ready to adapt and thrive with every Google algorithm update.