- It's happened again,
there's been another core update from Google.
And in this video, we're going to talk about the June, 2021
core algorithm update by Google,
how it impacts your site, what you can do about it
and how to make sure that you can recover
if you've taken hit from your rankings,
plus what it means for your SEO moving forward.
Now, before we jump in, please make sure you subscribe.
And if you have any questions about the algorithm update,
please feel free to send your questions
in the comment section below, be happy to answer them.
So what do we know about the core algorithm update so far?
So this was rolled out on June the 2nd,
and is continuing to be rolled out.
So it's a core update by Google,
which means it's not targeting anything specific
about your site.
It's kind of like a holistic algorithm update
which means that all of the metrics
for your site are going to be analyzed, right?
So it's not just about content,
it's not just about links,
it's about the quality of your site overall.
Now it's very early days,
which means that you shouldn't do anything drastic.
If you've taken a hit on your site,
maybe your traffic has dropped,
maybe your rankings have moved,
don't worry about it too much right now
because in the first few weeks of any sort of core update
or algorithm update from Google, you can't panic, okay?
It may feel like an emergency, but the thing is
there'll be a lot of things changing and Google's algorithm
will be tweaking and testing different things,
which means that you shouldn't do anything drastic
as there may be changes in the future.
In fact, Google are rumored to bring out
another core update in July, 2021 too,
which means that your rankings may change again.
So it's important not to do anything drastic here.
And the thing is with Google's core algorithm update,
this is all about the overall quality of the site.
So in this video,
I'm going to teach you exactly what to look out for,
what you can do about it and how you can make sure
that your rankings aren't significantly impacted
in a bad way by Google's core update.
Now, the biggest issue of core updates
is it's very hard to isolate one issue, right?
So unless you test this in isolation,
you can't really figure out, "Okay, have my rankings dropped
because my technical SEO wasn't on point
or maybe my content quality wasn't high enough
or the backlinks I were getting were not that great?"
The thing is with Google's core update,
you've got to kind of compare your site
versus the perfect model site in your industry, right?
And then consider, "Okay, am I doing better than them
or am I doing worse than them?"
And you really have to try and bridge the gap
between you and your competitor.
Now, if you see any rumors or people making statements,
I mean, on a lot of Facebook groups is people
making big statements about what the core update involved.
It's kind of too early to say, right?
And anyone who gives you that sort of advice
may not be the most credible or reliable source.
And what I mean by this is that if you're trying
to figure out a Google algorithm update,
there may be hundreds of core changes in the algorithm
across literally thousands of sites.
And therefore it's very hard to identify one single trend.
You need a lot of data.
What I will say is with any sort of core update by Google,
they actually released some guidelines in 2019
that still hold true today.
And what we can do is go through each of the questions
in these guidelines and sort of figure out
what's the better way to approach your site
and improve your site so that you don't get hit
by core updates in the future,
and so that you can protect your website right now
from Google algorithm updates.
All right.
So here we are on Google's core update guidelines.
So these are the guidelines you can ask yourself about
when you're trying to figure out, "Okay,
how can I protect my website from core updates?
How can I improve my content quality?"
And overall, honestly, if you want to get a better site,
if you want to improve the quality of your site,
then these guidelines are perfect, right?
It's basically a questionnaire
on not just how to improve your SEO,
but how to improve the user experience
of people who visit your site too.
So very useful guidelines.
And the first thing that I would say is that
as Google explains in their guidelines,
focus on content, right?
So if your page has dropped,
you can run through these content quality questions
and ask yourself, "How can I improve?"
Now, what I would say before implementing any of these
is that you want to take a step back, okay?
So when a Google core update comes out,
your rankings are going to be temperamental anyway
and you can't just go in there
and make some drastic changes.
But you could create some ideas,
start brainstorming in terms of how can you improve.
And then after the dust settles
and Google score update has been launched for a month or so,
then you can start making some changes.
And I would recommend just changing a few things,
making a few tweaks at first, nothing too crazy
and then testing the water and see how things go.
So, like I said, go through the content
and quality questions.
So ask yourself, "Does the content provide
original information reporting researcher analysis?"
So is your content unique?
Is it offering something of value
that can't really be found anywhere else?
And does the content provide a substantial complete
or comprehensive description of the topic?
So rather than just covering the bare basics of a topic
and creating really thin content
that doesn't help the visitor that much,
Google's asking for content that's comprehensive,
that's concise but also detailed as well.
So in these content quality questions, for example,
you could ask yourself, "Does the headline or the page
title avoid being exaggerating or shocking in nature?"
Because a lot of content these days is clickbaiting, right?
Which means that basically it's got this crazy
attention grabbing and shocking headline,
but when you actually click through to the page,
the content isn't that interesting
or it doesn't really help that much
or it's not really that relevant.
So be careful of doing that too.
And also when it comes to content nowadays
that ranks on Google, Google's looking the most credible,
authoritative and relevant content they can find.
Because the more credible authority for your content is,
the more you can help your users
and the people who visit your site without misleading them,
without creating fake content
that doesn't really answer the question
or isn't statistically relevant
or isn't very factual, right?
Because there's lot people are out there writing.
And this is super important if you're in an industry
like medicine, for example,
because if you give out the wrong information
and Google ranks your site,
then that could literally be the difference
between life and death for someone.
So expertise is very highly rated on Google's algorithm.
Okay, so is your content written by an expert
or an enthusiastic who demonstratively knows the topic well?
So, can the person writing your content genuinely give
a factual outlook on the topic they're writing about
or are they just making it up as they go along?
And also, is the content free
from easily verified factual areas.
So have you included some statistics in your content
that's not factually correct or could be disproven,
and is it from a credible source too?
And then there's other basic things as well.
Like for example, is your content free from spelling
or stylistic issues?
Was the content produced well or was it produced sloppily
and basically hastily produced?
Which means, did someone just blast out the article and try
and write it as fast as they can,
or did they carefully plan out the content
before they wrote it to make sure that it answers
all the questions and problems of the person
based in that page.
So basically if you've been hit by a core update,
don't make any like crazy, drastic changes just yet.
But go through all the questions on this page.
You can find it at this URL here.
And basically look at
how can you take your content to another level?
Are you doing all the things that Google is looking for,
or are there some things that you need to improve
and work on so that you can improve
your content quality long-term.
So one final caveat before I go is that
sometimes you can't do everything right
with your website, right?
So you can get your core vitals on point.
In fact, I know some where masters
who've literally invested thousands of dollars
into perfecting their site in terms of core vitals
and still got here by Google's algorithm.
Now, the reason why that is is because it's Google, okay?
It's an algorithm and algorithms are very unpredictable,
and quite often the exact details
of core updates aren't revealed.
You've got to do the best you can.
You've got to optimize the best way you can.
And if you get hit by a core update,
it's not the end of the world.
Because if you're doing the right things,
if your content quality is high,
if you're not doing anything
to manipulate your rankings on Google,
then you've just of got to flip your cards on the table
and wait for things to correct,
especially when Google core update is initially released.
Because over the first couple of weeks,
over the first three or four weeks, things are unpredictable
and your rankings are going to move lot.
That's the same for every website.
So just do what you can, optimize the best way you can,
and accept some risk involved in ranking on Google.
So thanks for watching guys.
I hope this video helped you
and I hope your website wasn't hit too harshly
by Google's core update.
If you have any questions,
let me know in the comment section below.
And by the way, I do run a link building agency
that's juliangordy.com.
So if you want to increase your rankings,
if you want to get more traffic,
if you'd like to rank higher on Google,
then we can definitely help you.
Feel free to jump on my website
and book in a call at juliangordy.com.
And we'll give you a tailor-made strategy for link building
that's worked for literally hundreds of our clients before.
All right, thanks for watching.