Google launched a broad core update which lasted for almost fifteen days. This update was global, impacting all regions and all languages.
It was a major update that appeared to have a significant impact on search results. Due to this update, some websites witnessed a dip, while others saw an increase, and some websites even lost their rankings.
The update caused a significant volatility during the roll out period and even after the official end of the update, with some websites seeing their rankings fluctuating. But, the unpredictability and the rankings have finally stabled.
The main concern that is now troubling the businesses is regarding “Ad-spam” — the sponsored listings that appear above, and compete with, the organic listing for traffic. Most of the accounts reported more ad-spam above the fold in the search results. In some cases, the #1 organic listing, being below the fold, reported terribly low traffic numbers due to competition from the many ad listings appearing above them.
Here are a few tips to keep in mind for future updates:
- Remember, content is king! Ensuring your content is original, engaging, and useful to your target audience, will attract more audience and increase your ranking.
- Use relevant keywords to optimize your website, create a sitemap, and build high quality, relevant backlinks to your website.
- It’s important to keep a track of Google’s latest Quality Rater Guidelines. It will provide you with insights into what types of content Google’s algorithm is looking to reward.
- If your ranking isn’t improving, wait. Google takes time to index new content and to adjust its rankings. Don’t expect to see results overnight.
If you’ve recently experienced a drop in your website’s rankings, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team for assistance.