Broad Core Google algorithm update: What are the most important guidelines?

Summary

In June 2019, Google published the official guidance on Core Updates, which focuses on four main areas of content and which encourages website owners to learn to objectively evaluate their own content. After the publication of the google algorithm update, numerous top websites have lost their rankings and have suffered major traffic drops. Daily Mail is an illustrative example: the news website has registered a significant decline in rankings and its specialists have been unable to explain the drastic decline. They sought the advice of the Webmaster Help Forum, but the answers they received, such as the fact that the drop may have been caused by the fact that the website is not mobile-friendly, or that the website may have too many page loading errors, were neither satisfactory nor helpful.

According to Search Engine Journal, some websites have reported that they are shutting down as a result of the latest google algorithm update, given the fact that their daily revenue dropped by more than 90%. There were also websites that found themselves in the opposite situation and that registered massive wins after the google algorithm update 2019. Danny Sullivan, the author of the guidelines, has stressed the fact that the focus should be on creating quality content and not on fixing particular problems that have supposedly affected a website’s ranking. He encouraged website owners to make an effort and read the approximately 200 pages of raters guidelines in order to better understand what they should focus on in the future. The emphasis on the elaboration of relevant content has determined numerous website owners to seek the assistance of professionals who understand Google algorithms and who should be able to identify a website’s issues and to make the necessary improvements.

Content

According to the author suggests that website owners should ask four types of questions when they conduct an assessment related to their website content. As Danny Sullivan mentioned in the guidance he elaborated, the questions fall into 4 main categories, namely content and quality questions, expertise questions, presentation and production questions, and comparative questions.

In the section which covers the quality and content questions, the author advises content writers to be original and comprehensive and to avoid exaggerations in the headlines, as it often happens for readers to set high expectations when seeing the headline and to subsequently be disappointed. Content creators are encouraged to elaborate helpful and beneficial pages which aim at sharing information about a topic, expressing a point of view, entertaining, selling products or services, etc.

The information posted by a website should be clear and satisfying, enabling users to feel comfortable when they navigate and to trust the website they are using. The good main content should help the page achieve its purpose, whereas supplementary content should contribute to the improvement of the user experience.

The questions related to the expertise of the author are meant to verify whether the author has managed to produce quality content, free of factual errors. The presentation and production questions aim at finding out whether the users’ attention is not driven away from the main content because of excessive ads and whether the website is mobile-friendly. Actually, the focus is on determining whether the content mobile users see on their mobile devices is adequately displayed. Inadequate font sizes or excessively long paragraphs with crowded content may be difficult to follow, thus hindering users’ experience when reading an article on a mobile device. The last section of the latest google algorithm update, which deals with comparative questions, teaches website owners to compare their page quality with other pages they find in the search results and to establish whether the content serves the visitors’ interests.

In case you do not know how to react to the google SERP update which stresses the importance of quality content which does not target any specific issues, if you want to learn how to effectively prepare your website for this update, resorting to the assistance of a marketing agency may prove to be a good idea. To start with, marketing specialists will conduct a comprehensive analysis of your website in order to identify their strengths and weaknesses. They will objectively evaluate the content and the quality of your pages and they will establish how responsive your website is to the needs of mobile users. Given their expertise in Google rankings and the multiple resources and tools at their disposal, they should be able to make the necessary amends, so that your visitors can enjoy a premium experience. Thus, working with professionals with an in-depth understanding of Google’s algorithm will be helpful, as they will identify and implement the best strategies for ensuring that your website meets the highest quality standards.

Conclusion

The latest Google algorithm update has generated a multitude of reactions among website owners and has made most of them wonder what they did wrong or whether their website needs immediate improvements in order to avoid a sharp decline in rankings. Only by keeping their website properly optimized will website owners make sure that they will not suffer major drops in rankings, with a huge effect on their revenues and on their overall business activity. If you are not sure that your website content meets Google’s standards, if you want to rank well in Google in the long term and to stay ahead of the competition, if you have no understanding of Google’s algorithm, you should resort to the assistance of a professional SEO agency.

Its specialists will follow Google’s guidelines and will take the necessary measures to ensure that your website is adequately optimized. With their help, you can offer your visitors a premium experience when they access your website. All in all, you have the power to ensure that your website strictly follows Google’s recommendations and that it efficiently serves its purpose, enabling you to consolidate your brand in the digital landscape and to transform visitors into loyal buyers.