Did you know that Google changes its search system several times per day?
That’s 3,200 changes in the past year! How can you keep up with this pace, and do you really need to be aware of all these changes to stay on top of your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts?
According to Google, some are brand new changes while others were updates to keep in step with the fluctuating landscape of the worldwide web. To improve the ability to search and find exactly what we are looking for, Google releases regular algorithmic updates. As new websites, blog articles, comments, reviews, and data are uploaded to the internet, search engine rankings need to adjust to present the freshest, most relevant content to internet users. Therefore, your company’s Google rankings today are not what they will be tomorrow. Nor will your keyword phrases forever remain the top words your potential customers use to find your products and services.
To be an SEO ninja, you need to keep up on the recent algorithmic updates. Here’s a quick rundown of the last major Google algorithm changes, the penalties when they are not followed, and the fixes to avoid penalties. Use these items as your ultimate checklist to maintain your website’s rank position in search engine results:
• The 2011 Panda Update and subsequent Panda Core Updates since 2016
Duplicate, thin, or plagiarized content is penalized. Avoid keyword stuffing and spammy posts. Panda wants you to earn your Google rank and assigns your website’s ranking according to a “quality score” for your web pages. The fix: Regularly check your site and blog for keyword stuffing and thin content (doorway pages, irrelevant affiliate pages, and low quality content pages) . Check for duplicate content within your website and against other web pages on the internet. If you must use exact language for product descriptions and reviews, place product descriptions within graphics that are not crawled by Google.
• The 2012 Top Heavy Update
Websites that are “top-heavy” with ads are penalized. The fix: Remove the proliferation of advertisements and replace them with interesting, relevant content.
• The 2012 Penguin Update and subsequent Penguin Core Algorithm that works in real time since 2016
Irrelevant or spammy links are penalized, along with links with anchor text that is over-optimized. Penguin drops the rank of sites that employ manipulative links. The fix: Regularly audit your website with a backlink checker.
• The 2012 Pirate Update
Sharing pirated content—content from sites containing copyrighted material—is penalized. Pirate specifically demotes websites that violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The fix: Run a duplicate content report and eliminate any material copied from other websites. Avoid posting content under copyright protection (including graphics and video media).
• The 2012 Exact Match Domain (EMD) Update
Low-quality websites are penalized when keywords within their domain names that are an exact matches in searches. The fix: Create meaningful, enhanced on-page content to retain and gain rankings without altering your domain name.
• The 2013 Payday Loan Update
Keywords often used by spammers (such as casinos, loans, money, and sexual terms) are penalized. The fix: Avoid keywords that can confuse readers to believe you run a spammy website. Instead, concentrate on longtail phrases that specify legitimate business.
• The 2013 Hummingbird Update
Poor quality content and keyword stuffing are penalized. Hummingbird likes to look for intuitive content over blatant keywords and makes use of processing synonyms, co-occurring terms, and semantic indexing instead. In other words, the intent of the searcher takes precedence over keywords. The fix: In addition to focusing on keyword research, focus on phrases and concepts. Diversify your content to increase engagement.
• The 2014 Pigeon Update
Poor local SEO practices are penalized. Traditional SEO factors now play a part in the calculation for local result rankings. The fix: Ensure your company is easy to find on a map by avoiding address info inconsistencies online. Invest in search engine optimization efforts for both on and off-page SEO. Start with a content analysis to discover what aspects to focus on for on-page optimization. Get listed in directories of relevance to your business to bolster off-page SEO, deliver backlinks to your site, and increase your Google rankings.
• The 2015 Mobile Update (also known as “Mobilegeddon”)
Lack of mobile websites or poorly loading and error-prone mobile websites are penalized. Mobilegeddon ensures that mobile-friendly pages rise to the top of the rankings in a mobile search, and pages that are not mobile-optimized are dropped in rank or removed entirely from the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). The fix: Check how your website pages load in a mobile device. Focus on usability and speed.
• The 2015 RankBrain Update (added to the Hummingbird Algorithm)
Shallow, generalized content is penalized. Based on artificial intelligence, it focuses on specific ranking factors within a query (not much is known about how RankBrain actually functions). The fix: Run a competitive analysis to discover terms used by your top-ranking competitors, then optimize your content accordingly.
• The 2016 Possum Update
Head-to-head competition in your specific location is penalized. Possum ensures that the closer a searcher is located to a business address, the more likely they are to see it in their results. Possum also boosts businesses located outside of a particular city area to offer a greater variety of SERPs. The fix: Expand your keyword phrases to include location-specific information, and ensure that your address and contact info is consistent across the Internet.
• The 2017 Fred Update
Thin ad-centered or affiliate-heavy content that breaks Google Webmaster Guidelines is penalized. Fred focuses on blogs and web pages that are created with the main purpose of generating advertising revenue. The fix: Adjust your on-site ads to offer high quality, relevant, educational information instead of tricking a reader into clicking on an affiliate link.
• The 2018 and 2019 Core Updates
These updates do not specifically focus on particular website characteristic or search queries. Instead, they are “behind-the-scenes” changes that have a broader impact across a large range of areas.
• The 2018 Broad Core Algorithm Update
This update includes the E-A-T update, which penalizes overall quality. It mainly affects medical websites and big news portals. E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness—Google’s three major considerations for page quality. Your web pages are penalized when they don’t indicate why your content is of value. The fix: Post content that leaves no doubt that you are an expert, an authority, and trustworthy in your field.
• The March 2019 Core Update
All forms of irrelevant content can be penalized, including blog articles, social media posts, posts to forums, press releases, reviews, and email. The fix: Distribute engaging, relevant information that generates social interactions such as comments, responses, and shares. Post high-quality content on a consistent schedule, and refresh older content.
• The June 2019 Core Update
Sites containing low-value news content are penalized, while larger, well-known sites with reputable news content surge in the SERP rankings. Sites containing video carousels also rose in search engine rank visibility. The fix: Refresh your website with reliable content and include videos in the mix.
• The Unofficial July 2019 Maverick Core Update
This update came on the heels of the new Top Gun movie trailer (Google may have ceased using animal names for their updates, but they haven’t lost their sense of humor.) It is too early to discern why your site lost traffic and ranking within the last month or so, as the Maverick update currently doesn’t seem to target any single spammy SEO tactic, but early indications lean towards targeting traffic on retail websites. The fix: Continue to be vigilant and monitor your content for poor links, duplication, and relevance.
Trying to digest all the Google algorithm updates over the past eight years can give anyone a search engine optimization stomachache. Avoid the pain and hassle of dodging Google penalties: Learn about organic SEO and the essentials of content development. Then let the SEO experts steer you clear of penalties and make stellar improvements in your search engine rankings. Contact Moore Than SEO at 559-978-4096 to get started.