Written by: Ryan Walsh
Date: 8/03/2024

 

Google handles billions of searches every single day, and it’s absolutely brilliant at doing this by offering good-quality answers to questions.
To offer an accurate answer to a question, Google had to crawl and index billions of websites and then organise them so the best possible answers are put those businesses onto page of Google.

Throughout the year, there are usually a number of rather large algorithm updates. However, don’t be overly alarmed in the first couple of days after a significant Google algorithm update.
Usually, what follows is what is called “ranking flux”. Typically, things settle down after a short period after. Then, you can re-evaluate where your website’s position is, using Google Search Console, see what action needs to be taken, whether you can carry on doing SEO the way you have been doing it all, and whether you need to re-evaluate the methods you have been using.

So, what exactly is Google’s algorithm? And how does it work?

By far, by a country mile, Google is the world’s most widely used search engine. Many SEO agencies don’t even focus on optimising their clients’ websites for any search engine other than Google (ours does not). In fact, it’s widely thought that over 85 to 95% of all searches made by shoppers are made using Google worldwide.

Things don’t stay still for a very long

There used to be an old saying that if you stand still for too long, you will let the grass grow beneath your feet. This is basically a description that used in business as well, you need to keep agile; you need to adapt; otherwise, you are a sitting duck and likely to be overtaken by your competitors.

Well, this is true when it comes to search engine optimisation (SEO) as well because Googles algorithms are extremely complex, constantly being refined and improved. When a major algorithm update is rolled out, this means Google’s search engineers have perfected the algorithm once again.

However, we do have to stress once more: Even if your website moves after a Google algorthim update, remember that after a Google algorithm update, don’t make knee-jerk decisions, on changing the seo, and don’t make a series of rapid changes. Instead, take your time, allow the ranking flux to calm down slightly, and then reevaluate and see what areas you need to improve, say, after a week or a month after the major update.

Relevance

You need to make your website relevant for the keywords that you want to rank higher for Google. If you sell, for example, craft beer, there is no point in writing endless amounts of blog posts about the local rugby team that you sponsor because rugby is not directly related to craft beer.

However, if Google spots your talking about how you source your hops, the state-of-the-art beer brewing equipment that you purchase, and how your company is grown in Bristol, where your beer is now being sold in local shops, if you’re talking about this type of thing, that it’s relevant as you own a brewery. Google will see that the content marketing is relevant to beer, and that you’re talking about something related to brewing beer. Therefore, you’re likely to rank higher in Google’s results regarding craft beer in your area.

Make it super useful

Have you ever turned to Google for an answer to a question, and after reading the pages on some websites, you are somewhat disappointed with the answer? That is when your scan reading the page, for a few seconds, you may leave the website and go to another website.
However, these websites tend to have a high “bounce rate” because they are not helpful and don’t answer the question. Because of this, your business will most likely start ranking lower in Google’s results, as Google’s algorithm detects that the bounce rate is through the roof.
So, when it comes to recovering from a Google algorithm update, one of the first things that you have to do is evaluate content marketing. Is it useful, well-written, and of good quality?

If you notice that the quality of rubbish, its content thin, and the SEO consultant has just literally been copying and pasting off an artificial intelligence program, then this work needs to be significantly improved, you need to be enhanced and made better; then when Google rolls out its next algorithm update you may move up Google’s ranks.

Usability and Page Experience

When you walk into a restaurant and enjoy eating a nice meal, often your not just there for a meal; therefore, you might be there to soak in the atmosphere, the experience of being out perhaps enjoying a nice bowl of spaghetti Bolognese?

This is the same when you’re shopping on the Internet to buy a product or service, you want to find products or services quickly, you want the website to be a piece of cake to use. Shoppers are looking for well-designed websites with a good page structure, good loading times, and easy to navigate. This is why your web designers need to concentrate on offering a brilliant overall page experience and making sure your website is super fast. If not, the bounce rate will likely go through the roof.

 

Google EEAT (expertise, experience, authoritativeness and trust)
Think of Google E-EAT this a bit like a framework, or even the clipboard with a tick box’s; Google is evaluating every single page and every blog post to see if in the written work you are creating shows that you have the expertise, experience, authoritativeness and trustworthiness in what you are writing about

just as you would not let a plumber fix your boiler if it’s clear that they haven’t got the qualifications or the expertise to fix it, neither will Google E-EAT let any business rank on the first page that doesn’t know what it’s talking about.

Therefore, Google uses “semantic SEO”, “Google’s Knowledge Grapth”, and its very complex and intricate Google algorithm to look at every single page and blog post and to evaluate if that page shows that the author has expertise, experience, authoritativeness and trustworthiness in what they are writing about. Do you have confidence in the advice that the business is offering? Or is it clear that they haven’t got a jar of glue, which is not a clue about what they are writing about?

 

What is a Google search algorithm update?

So, what exactly is a Google search algorithm update? And why does it make various SEO consultants sit upright when such an update is rolled out and gets their full attention?

How often does Google improve its algorithm?

Google core updates
We would say from experience that Google updates its algorithm around two times every single year. Now, we are talking about substantial core updates here; more minor updates happen, perhaps every week.

From our extensive experience improving businesses’ search engine optimisation—we have been doing this for over ten years—we know that a significant update typically rolls out around December/January time every year.

Another important update is normally rolled out around midyear, and this causes huge ranking flux. For example, the website might have been moving, let’s say, to the 25th position on Google, but after the update, the ranking flucks might mean that it may move out of the top 100 positions on Google. Therefore, this is what we call ranking flux.

Ranking flux is simply where a website temporarily moves substantially out of position. It might stay in a position, but often, it moves closer to where it once ranked before the Google update, that’s if it was using white hat methods throughout.

 

YMYL (‘Your Money or Your Life’) these businesses have their pages scrutinised a lot more closely by Google

Its this type of content marketing; anything that relates to offering advice about people’s health or, perhaps, let’s say offers financial information which is scrutinised much more closely by Googles algorithm. Therefore, the work must be very high quality and written by an expert on the matter if it is to be placed on the first page of Google.

 

Let’s go back in time and look at the few with significant Google algorithm updates.

The Google Panda update was a huge update.

In 2011, Google rolled out a massive algorithm update called the Google Panda algorithm update. It penalised websites with many low-quality, content-thin pages. If the page / blog post offered little in the way of helpful information, then after this update, it would rank lower after this massive Google Panda algorithm update. Also, if the business is using spam, this algorithm update will hit a seo technique such as if a business used “spun content”. The company might have even been on page 1, but after this update and when the penalty was rolled out, the business might not have even been on the first ten pages of Google.

 

Hummingbird

In 2013, Google rolled out a massive update called the Google hummingbird update; it was a substantial change to its algorithm once again. This massively changed seo, as Google offered much more precise answers to queries.

 

Back in 2015, Google rolled out a mobile update.

More people than ever are started buying products and services on their smartphones, which have more powerful processors and are faster. The screens on smartphones are getting more larger, and therefore more people will buy more products from their phones.
Google, therefore, had to roll out an update, and thus, businesses with really well-designed mobile versions of their company website, that had mobile versions of their website that were fast, easy-to-use offered a good user experience would rank higher on Google. In contrast, these websites started to rank higher. It was around this time that Google also rolled out mobile-first indexing.

 

Google Rank Brain
In 2015, Google rolled out a massive algorthim update called the Google RankBrain update, which introduced artificial intelligence into the algorithm.

Google’s RankBrain also introduced machine learning, and therefore, many SEO consultants believe that more regular Google updates occur much more frequently because of computations of machine learning that were first introduced by the Google rank brain.
However, it’s important to say that Google Rankbrain algorithm updates do often cause less ranking flux and changes to where companies are ranked in the SERPP’s than Google core updates do.

 

The Google Bert Update
In 2019, Google rolled out the Google Bert Update, it was another large step forward in better understanding “user intent”. As more and more people are asking more complex questions to Google, ever since the Google Hummingbird update, where people, as we explained earlier, are now talking to Google as if they are talking to a friend to get an answer to a question.

This meant that Google had to roll out another update called the Google Bert update; the search engine is better able to understand more complex questions that’s asked to it.

Therefore, the search strings have become a lot longer, now as shoppers ask even more complex questions. For example, somebody might have just searched for just “Bristol SEO agencies” in the past, yet now the search strings are becoming more complex.
For example, somebody looking for an SEO agency in this area might now ask questions such as, “Google find me an award-winning digital marketing agency in the Bristol area, close to me?”

This is a much more complex search string; it’s much more complicated, but because of the Google Hummingbird update and the Google Bert update, Google is better positioned to answer these more complex search strings.

 

 

Put your customers first
You most definitely want to put your customers first, thats when writing content marketing, so write really good quality work, that’s white hat, and offers very really useful advice.

Writing a blog post does take up a lot of time; it may take the best part of a day. Yet the really rubbish seo agencies out there may cut corners and perhaps use an artificial intelligence programs to try and write the content for them.
But will this best answer the customer’s question?

Probably not, as, to the Google E-EAT algorithm update illustrates, it’s important to show expertise, experience, authority, and some trustworthiness in your work.

 

Can an artificial intelligence program do that just yet?

To a certain extent, yes, but to answer the more complex questions, we would say right now probably no.
Therefore, you must challenge your clients who say I”t should take a very short period of time to see results, in terms of generating more sales from the SEO work.

That’s because as the famous and brilliant Guinness adverts state, “good things come to those who wait”.

This means the work needs to be high-quality, which takes longer to complete and is more expensive.

Yet if you want to use organic seo or local seo as a way you want to promote your business, it’s better to invest in high quality work than rubbish, mediocre, or low quality seo.

This low quality seo work, is the work that will get penalised, which means that your rankings basically crash and burn. This is why you need to hire an established seo agency, this is why you should hire us instead.