Google Core Update: Overview
The Google search engine works on the basis of certain algorithms that are used to produce relevant results in no time. These algorithms also decide the rankings of the websites to be shown in the results. On regular basis, Google keeps on updating its algorithms so that the users’ search experience can be improved. This generates the need of updating websites accordingly so that they can maintain or improve their rankings.
These updates are released several times every year. And whenever an update is announced, it increases the task of the SEO experts who are continuously engaged in the task of making the rankings of websites higher.
So a Google core update is an update that is about some significant changes in Google’s search algorithm and this update affects how Google will rank the web pages in search results.
Google Core Update vs Normal Google Update:
A Google core update is a significant change in the algorithms of Google, whereas a normal Google update refers to a small amount of change in the algorithms. Both impact the ranking of the website, but the impact of the core update is larger.
Moreover, Google announces the core updates but not the normal ones. It also names the core updates.
Both kinds of updates should be taken care of by the owners of the website and necessary changes should be implemented in the website on time.
How Google Core Update affects the Website and how does it recover from its effects?
A large number of websites and search queries are affected by these core updations. And because of this, significant changes occur in the rankings of the websites and the results that are displayed to the user upon the search of a particular term. The traffic on the websites may also get reduced, whereas some websites may see a rise in traffic. Thus the Google core update can impact websites in negative as well as positive ways. So it should not be considered as a penalty, but rather a chance to improve in a better way.
After the announcement of the Google core update, the website needed to be recovered to make it up to date. But before starting the recovery process, one must find out if the website has been affected by the Google core update or not. For this, the following things can be monitored:
- Has Google officially announced the Google core update? Check the dates of recent Google core updates
- Are there any comments from the SEO community about the latest update?
- Is there any change in the trends going on in the market?
- Do you notice any changes in the Google analytics of your website?
- Are your website rankings going down?
- Is your website traffic going down?
- Can you notice any changes in the traffic of your competitor’s websites?
Whenever any core update is released by Google, your website does not get affected immediately. The core update always takes some days to show the effects on the website. But once you are sure that your website has been affected by the Google core update, you must start the process of recovery immediately to save the rankings of your website.
The website recovery process from the Google core update includes the following steps:
- Find out the extent how much your website has got affected by the recent core update in a negative way. For this, you can use the analytics of your website to check the rankings and website hits.
- Determine the areas where changes are required to bring back the rankings and improve the traffic that has gone down.
- As Google core updates generally give priority to high-quality, relevant, and useful content, audit your content to remove outdated ones and publish better ones. It must be original and valuable for the users of the website.
- Improve the structure of the website so that the user experience can be made better. The website must be properly organized, easy to navigate, and loads fast.
- As most of the users use a smartphone, the website must be optimized for mobile devices so that it is able to get maximum traffic.
- The backlinks of the website must be reputed and of high quality. Any broken backlinks should also be traced and got replaced.
- Use analytics to monitor the website’s performance on a regular basis in order to check if your efforts are paying off or not.
