Google Survival Guide: 7 Steps to Recover From Latest Google Core Update
Why does Google only bring organic search results to your every search query?
Google is powered by hundreds and thousands of data-retrieving paths from its search index. Multiple ranking factors decide whether your website will appear on top SERPs (Search Engine Results Page).
If you aren’t optimizing your content well, and not following Google core updates, then you will face a loss of traffic and your website rankings will gradually decrease. To avoid these, Google constantly releases core updates, which when followed, give business owners the best chance to grow in the online space.
However, upon every release of a new Google core update, a massive impact is on website traffic. To avoid this traffic loss, people need ways to recover from Google core updates. They need a Google Survival Guide that teaches the best steps to bring back the lost traffic, maintain website authority, and regain the lost SERP.
In this article, we will tell you 7 steps to recover from any latest Google core algorithm update. But, before we move to those steps, let’s first understand -
What is a Google Core Algorithm Update?
To give you the best possible search results, Google constantly changes, reworks, and updates its search algorithm. In a year, Google releases core updates multiple times, targeting more extensive data-retrieving paths, causing disruption among bloggers and publishers.
It is natural if the SERP is volatile within two to three weeks upon the release of the Google core update. As a result, while websites lose traffic, some gain traffic. Usually, Google announces the release on their Twitter channel a few days before they roll out the release.
There are 3 types of Google updates that we know about:
- Smaller Updates: Google does this every day that has no noticeable changes.
- Named Updates: Penguin or Panda updates targeted multiple major problems in Google’s algorithm. In 2011 Panda targeted websites with poor content and in 2012 Penguin targeted spam issues of backlinking practices.
- Broad Core Updates: Such updates are released 4 times a year to improve the functioning of the Google search algorithm.
How Do You Know If Google Released A Core Update?
A quick way to collect prior information on Google core updates is by following Google’s Twitter channel. Furthermore, you can cross-check top tech blogs, Google’s developer communities, and Google news. One or the other way, you will come to know about the release of the Google core update.
However, the big question is how will you come to know if your website is impacted by Google release updates or not?
Firstly, you can check your website analytics from SEO tools. If there is any disruption or volatility in your website, then via tools you will come to know about them.
For some weeks after the release of updates, SERPS remains volatile. During this time Google examines all the websites and their indexes. That’s after SEO experts perform SEO checkups, research, analyze, and try to reduce the impacts of core updates.
Secondly, with each update, it is normal to lose ranking on SERPs. You won’t get the rankings back unless you don’t make some right changes. Your loss of traffic indicates multiple things — slow page speed, keyword cannibalization & stuffing, spammy link-building, low-quality website affiliates, and poor & thin content related to your website.
Doing a firm analysis of SERP and following the industry experts & their practices can help you out from the impacts of Google core updates.
“To avoid Google core update changes at your website, must serve users with high-quality and trustworthy content, and, at the same time, they must convince Google that they are to be trusted. And don’t just limit the content, you must focus on link building, web pages load speed, keyword research, and take care of multiple SEO factors; all together in your content marketing strategy.”
-Padmaja Santhanam, SaaS Growth Marketing Manager and Partner FirstPrinciples
7 Steps to Recover From Latest Google Core Update
Well, there is no definitive answer to this — because Google keeps the vast majority of the inner workings of its algorithms secret. However, based on our research, experience, and quality content marketing advice, we’ve identified a few steps to recover your lost traffic during a Google Core Update!
Update Your Existing Content
The one easiest thing everyone should do upon Google Core update is to start updating their website’s content piece with the latest information. Make your old posts fresh, and add current stats ensuring readers that your website content always keeps up with the industry changes.
While writing content, the users must focus on Google’s suggested list of content and quality questions.
If you can compete for new keywords and trending topics, the chances of increasing traffic maximize. To ensure content quality, search intent, content intent, and relevancy, you need to focus on thin content and keyword targeting practices. Don’t target keywords on the same pages.
To avoid the thin content problems, the best you can do is to cover each topic in depth via long-form blog posts. Write human-friendly content; never write for search engines. At the heart of the content, it ensures a better user experience.
You can also carry out user testing. Simply tell your loyal audience members to read and give feedback on the content. Be honest and keep checking your poorly-performing pages.
Use Data to Work on Website On-page SEO
If you use SEO tools like Semrush or Ahrefs, the position tracking setup features help in spotting rankings of the content that took a hit from Google core updates. You can identify the same in Google Search Console and Google Analytics. Based on the data of significant traffic drop, identifying problem web pages becomes easy, and you can gradually operate to make those pages relevant & authoritative.
Additionally, you can create more accessible content for the readers by improving the SEO of each webpage. For this, you have to update your metadata for the title, images & headings, include keywords in H1, H2, and H3, make a good URL structure, implement rich media for Google snippets, and consciously focus on content readability to aware of the Google bot about your webpage.
All this is required to improve the on-page authority of your content. For your off-page authority, you need to focus on quality links that mention your brand on other websites. Along with SEO, focus on quality over quantity to avoid downturns in your traffic upon any new Google core update.
A Consistent Content Strategy Creation is Necessary
For a continuous improvement in the content, creating a competitor-analyzed content strategy is critical once your traffic decreases after every Google core update. You have to fill your content gap wrt your competitors. Excellently organize your content cluster and re-craft your content strategy, supporting existing content.
Follow the practice of in-depth content creation and publish new content that suits the recent Google core updates. All of this will bring new organic traffic to your website, making up for the last traffic.
Think More Technical When Doing SEO
As we know that Google core updates deal with content and SEO; recovering from the update is possible if you sort out your technical SEO issues. A good technical SEO setup helps generate an intuitive user experience that might result in audience loyalty.
As a part of your Google core update recovery process, you need to address technical SEO issues by improving core web vitals (CWV), web page load timing, meta descriptions, headings, page titles, SSL, XML sitemaps, web page navigation structure, robost.txt files, internal & external links, and structured markups.
All these changes can offset the organic traffic dip caused by the Google core update!
Audit Your Internal & External Links
Creating an organized internal link strategy helps in a clever promotion of your other web pages. Not only does it increase the page rank, but maximizes the link-building efforts. As Google core updates target low-quality link profiles, you must avoid making low-quality backlinks, spammy links, and even paid links.
The best option is to create and submit a Disavow file consisting of unwanted links to your website by using the Google Search Console tool to remove the links.
Improve Website’s EAT (Expertise, Authority & Trustworthiness) & CWVs (Core Website Vitals)
Publishing good content isn’t enough. You need to follow EAT to publish great content. On the other hand, CWV was introduced in 2020 to measure your website performance. It measures visual stability, speed, and responsiveness. You can check your CWVs in the Google Search Console Core Web Vitals. Though CWVs don’t impact your traffic, they just keep reminding you of the website user experience.
Lastly, Always Be Aware of Every Google Update
Whether the updates are smaller, named, or broad core, you need to know each of them, especially broad core updates. Once you invest your time and money in these Google core updates, you will recover soon from the loss of traffic and will be able to make your website resilient for the future.
Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird, Mobile, RankBrain, YMYL, Medic, Bert, and Existing Core updates starting in 2019 are the top 8 Google updates that each website owner must understand.
Conclusion
Google core updates are the actionable tips and insights that you need to brainstorm and figure out to make your website more search engine and user-friendly.
These core updates decrease the traffic, following our above tips will make your website future-ready for all the updates from Google without decreasing traffic.
