Google Broad Core Update and What It Means for Website Owners
Google is well-known for constantly updating its algorithms, causing rank fluctuations in top search engine results. While most of these updates aren’t even noticeable, they do help the search engine giant to improve its user experience.
But when the update is more noticeable, Google ensures to confirm such updates along with concrete and actionable information that website owners, content producers, or other stakeholders need to know.
A recent update that’s currently being rolled out is the September 2022 broad core update. Read on to learn what it’s about, along with some of the previous significant updates and their impact on your SEO.
What You Should Know About the September 2022 Update
Google recently revealed a Core Algorithm Update for the entire search community on 12 September 2022. This is Google’s second broad core algorithm update in 2022 after the first one was released in May 2022. It will take around two weeks for the update to come into effect.
The September 2022 update comes under the broad core update category. This means that it is a global update and is not specific to any language, region, or website.
The main objective behind this update is to make Google better at assessing content and determining which search engine pages serve the best results to users’ queries.
These algorithm updates may result in highlighting or boosting web pages that previously went unnoticed, which means some websites may see drops in searches while others will experience gains in their web traffic.
READ: SEO 101: A Beginners’ Guide to Understanding SEO
Previous Google Core Updates and How They Affect Your SEO
Aside from the latest broad core update, it’s essential for marketers and business owners to be aware of the previous core updates that may be affecting their SEO in the back end. Read on to learn about some of these major updates.
- September 2022 – Core Update
This is the latest Google algorithm core update that has been officially confirmed by the company this month.
This core algorithm update aims to enhance the overall relevance of search results so they’re more helpful for users.
- August 2022- Helpful Content Update
The Helpful Content Update by Google was released to ensure that search engine users see more relevant, original, and helpful content in their search engine results pages (SERPs).
The update aimed to reward relevant and fresh content instead of penalising low quality, clickbait-y content.
- July 2022 – Product Reviews Update
Released in July, this was the fourth of the Product Reviews Update series for product reviews in English. The update was not anything new, only a refresh of the previous Google algorithm changes with the purpose of rewarding the best and targeted product reviews based on parameters like experience and real user testing.
- May 2022 – Core Update
This core algorithm update is meant to increase the overall relevance of SERPs and ensure they are useful for users.
- March 2022 – Product Reviews Update
This Google algorithm update was an extension to the existing one, which aimed to increase the algorithm’s ability to find the best, high-quality product reviews and bring them to the top searches.
- February 2022 – Page Experience Update
The update revealed that Google’s ranking algorithm would use various Core Web Vitals metrics along with their thresholds in its desktop ranking systems.
- December 2021 – Product Reviews Update
The second Product Reviews Update catered to all product reviews in the English language.
This update introduced various best practices for product review content, including offering audio, visuals, or other links with the product.
- November 2021 – Local Search Update
This was a global algorithm update released primarily to re-balance several factors used by the search engine to generate the best local search results.
- November 3, 2021 – Spam Update
This broad spam update was an extension of the previously released Google algorithm update, also known as Link Spam Update.
The update was released to improve its systems to effectively deal with link spam, where website owners participate in certain link schemes that violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
Why Content Should Be Top Priority
What website owners need to understand is that there’s nothing necessarily wrong with web pages that experience a drop in rankings after a core update.
Instead, Google recommends that site owners simply focus on offering the best content they can, which Google’s core algorithms seek to consistently reward.
To begin with the content overhaul process, reevaluate the following:
- Relevancy and quality of content
- Expertise in content creation
- Presentation and product-related questions
- Comparative questions about the content
To ensure great content, you can also review Google’s search quality rater guidelines.
Raters are people who give Google deeper insights on whether its algorithms are yielding satisfactory results.
Raters learn to assess useful content primarily because they are well trained to understand if the website content has strong Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness or E-A-T.
The best thing to do is to read the guidelines, as they might help you assess how your content is doing from an E-A-T perspective and what kind of improvements you can consider.
What To Do if Your Website Is Hit
For website owners, the September 2022 core update means that every time Google updates its search ranking algorithms, your website may get hit for better or for worse.
So, what should you do if your rankings drop?
If your website drops in ranking the days following a core update, the best thing to do is to reevaluate your organic search engine strategy.
Here are some of the suggestions and guiding points Google offers to marketers and publishers in this regard:
- Make sure to produce quality content or material that offers value to users. Your content needs to be fresh, relevant, and worthwhile to your target audience.
- Always create content that satisfies the expectations of users.
- Ensure accurate spelling and grammar along with high readability.
- Avoid over-optimising your content to dodge Google’s guidelines.
- Devise a white-hat link-building plan to get high-quality connections.
- Write about subjects that you are an expert at.
Overall, it’s important to keep in mind that Google aims to offer high-quality search results for their users.
If you work dedicatedly towards supporting Google’s purpose, your website is likely going to be rewarded with higher search engine visibility.
Next Steps for Your Business
You don’t have to do anything in the first few days of Google’s core algorithm update.
Make sure not to make any big or significant website updates in the coming days. The first few days of any major upgrade are the most turbulent.
So, it’s best to wait and see how and where things settle for your website. But keep a close eye on the search results during this period and look for trends in terms of who the winners and the losers are amidst this update.
This should then be followed by figuring out how to incorporate the best practices into your strategy moving ahead.
Buckle Up for Future Updates
If you’re a website owner, you need to keep track of all Google algorithm changes or core updates. They can either help or hurt you in terms of visibility, search engine rankings, conversions, ROI, and organic search traffic.
These changes may impact your overall SEO strategy, so it’s best to be on your toes to remedy any dip in rankings before the competition gets ahead.
You may collaborate with an SEO expert for better insights on how to navigate the turbulent world of SEO for maximum advantage.
