Google is a vast search engine and it is widely used by around 90% of the internet community. To maintain a good service and to cater the preferences of the users, Google regularly update their system just like other software applications. But imagine the daily updates as a little dash of paint on a huge canvas. It is barely perceptible, right? The updates always vary, either a megabyte or could take up hours to update, and it is a huge impact on your ranking in search engines.
Google uses over 200 factors on deciding where to rank you in Google search. It works because of the algorithms which are tightly guarded secret, and it is constantly changing, where in fact, more than 500 changes are made to the algorithm every year. Each year Google releases a ‘broad core algorithm update’ that boils up people in different emotions, either sad or happy.
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Your Site’s Status Will Always Vary
One example where they had a huge drop of potential customers online was Pandora, where their visibility fell to 28% overnight following the most recent broad core update. As what was mentioned earlier, the manual update from Google could possibly bring risk to your ranking in results page. But before diving into conclusions about Google being reasonable on their updates, it is important to know what caused these changes and how to anticipate it.
Google – The Biggest Search Engine
‘Don’t be evil’ – This is still the last written phrase in the end of Google’s corporate code of conduct, despite the clickbait posts which state the complete contrary. Well, when Socrates said, ‘the only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.’ It means that when talking about Google’s algorithm, they are being a little bit evil which would be forgiving to many users. Google keep things vague and they keep it much quiet.
The recent update from Google was explained through a social media post and people are bombarded by it. It is still vague to many. Some webmasters may notice a drop or gain coming from their sites and there is nothing wrong if you are performing well all throughout. You may have a good performance in running your website and placed high on results page, but the update can affect your current status and you shouldn’t let that slip away.
Whether you have lost visibility or not and would do anything to avoid losing it in the future, keep your screen on and I will show you that Google is not being as coy as they are. How can you avoid a nasty tumble down on the search engine? How to recover from a huge potential loss? It is not easy to wrap all of it around your fingers.
As we all know, Google achieved search engine world domination as they continuously improve various features and services for the users to find what they exactly looking for when searching the internet. It might sound simple, but it cuts out to the heart of what algorithm updates are all about – the user experience. Around 75% of all search engine utilization is done through Google, and it is the kind of market dominance everyone has been dreaming. But, if you are a webmaster or a leader, it is advisable to stay in touch all throughout the day.
If you are still wondering why Google is constantly updating their algorithms, here is the reason. All search engines are competing for market and internet domination, and Google is constantly improving user’s experience before other does, and if Google need any reminders about staying ahead in the competition on tech-savvy world, they can cast their eyes back to the rise and domination over the disastrous fall of Nokia.
Why A Change In Google Algorithm Is Important?
Why does Google always mess around their algorithm so often? It is because you want to rank as high as you can on Google search. 67% of web users will not proceed after the five listings on search engine results page and not only that, the first page of search engine results gets 95% all the web traffic.
If your ranking on Google search falls, your click-through rate immediately plummets. Here is how the ranking was based:
- First position: 35% CTR
- Second position: 15% CTR
- Third position: 10%, and it gets uglier afterwards
So, from your perspective, when Google says ‘there’s nothing wrong with pages that now perform less well’ they are wrong. When organic searches are concerned, you need to do everything you can to rank higher, and it may be not easy and possible outside factors are meant to hinder your ranking, it is still worth it to stay up and anticipate always the changes.
Who Were The Most Affected Ones?
The latest broad core update was named Google Medic Update, by Barry Schwartz, a prolific research writer and it affects much on the medical/health sites. Google care about their users on visiting the links and finding what they exactly need. Their focus is always on the user experience, and if they screw up, not only Bing and Yahoo will be on the line to outrank them but there are also other search engines that want to achieve world-domination status like Google.
Google’s Standard Is High-Quality Content
Google is not evil nor being vague in fact, they are just behaving like they always should. Yes, it is working and showing great chemistry to the users, but the signs are all there for you to get informed. Obviously, Google will not be the one to ask you to return to your ranking, and they know where they perform well or not in providing the right information to the users as quickly as possible. If you want to rank high in Google’s SERP, it is very vital to focus in making sure the users get what they need, in a form or product or service. Google want what is called high quality content, and this will be your way to the top.
This Is What You Can Do
Start with Google’s Quality Guidelines. It is the best guide to roll up your sleeves and achieve your desires in search engine. It has a quick and quite dirty version that goes as follow:
- Create high quality contents for your audience
- Naturally attract users to visit your web page
- Set yourself apart from others by being unique and within your niche
- Figure out how you can provide value to the visitors
But, the most heated technique is to be in your field of expertise, be creative and original, and be different. Health or medical sites that did not check all these boxes were likely to lose and confined in Google’s penalty. Don’t rely too much on what you can today, explore outside of your comfort zone because you might find better opportunity.
It is time to stop thinking about ranking in Google’s search engine as a game that you can win or lose. Find your unique selling point, differentiate yourself and offer value to your visitors. If you worry too much about where the Google game is going, you will get caught out. If you focus on providing a fantastic user experience, you will be playing a different game unexpectedly. And, better yet, it will be one that you can win.
