Google providing less information about the updates leaves SEO professional in doubt whenever they experience a huge loss of traffic on their websites. But according to many experts, this panic is unnecessary.
As SEO is a big part of our life we tend to obsess over changes due to organic results. It usually works as:
You get ready to work, start your computer, and check Facebook about what you have missed. You will notice that “a lot of activity” has been changed so far.
By “activity” SEOs mean the change in search ranking due to many fluctuations in a very short time. More the activities more will the fluctuations in ranking of many websites. Sometimes these fluctuations result positive and sometimes negative. Big updates often mean a big loss of traffic. Due to which you run to check Search Console or Google Analytics. Sometimes it affects your websites, sometimes not. So if these kinds of situation arise what is going to be your next step? What will you do that your website does not get affected? What are the things you should do to be aware of all these changes and not be worried about the Google updates? Have a look.
No-name rollouts
Earlier when the point of communication between Google and SEOs was former Head of Web Spam Matt Cutts, he confirms all the updates, and he himself or his team used to give a particular name for each of the updates. Hence providing a very useful way in which you can identify the main reason that why your website is affected. It describes what actually the update is targeting, making it easier to diagnose the issues. But nowadays Google does not share much information. Though Google confirms the bigger stuff like the last Penguin update. Any update which comes out is now getting a name “Fred”. Fred is meant to cover every update whether it is confirmed by Google or not.
So what should a SEO professional or a site owner do if it loses a huge amount of traffic? Without knowing about the update how will you fix your website? How will you stop penalizing your website by Google?
Working without a net
Google’s updated algorithms are rolling out every day usually every time of the day. But Google doesn’t share that information with the community.
If Google updates it all the time, how we can say we live in the post-update world?
Post-update world- the world where no confirmation that an update has been rolled out, some changes have been done in the present algorithm, no announcement of updating in advance.
So, if Google is not providing any information about either updates or algorithms, then from will you get the news? Well technically saying, you will get the news for the Google itself but not directly, instead you will get it in a more indirect way.
Falling off an analytics cliff
While knowing nothing about the Google’s update you still can find yourself at the bottom of the analytics cliff. You can go to Twitter, trying to find the solution but there also you will the information about the unknown algorithm “Fred”. So how will you determine the quality of the site which Google is defining?
One simple answer is by understanding the Google algorithms. Years ago, Google used to divide its update on the basis of on-page SEO and off-page SEO. There were link algorithms, content and over optimization algorithms. But the main focus always was spam. Google became the world leader in removing spammy content from its search results. But today algorithms deal with a lot more issues like- technical problems, content quality, link issues and user experience. Let’s have a look on how to evaluate these areas.
Link issues: It’s all about Penguin
Links is the most vetted area of an organic SEO, and Penguin algorithm evaluates those links. Penguin known as the harsh and brutal algorithm of the all helps Google to devalue the site having spammy links. Due to which these kinds of websites result in loss of at least 70 per cent of their traffic. Removing spammy links and adding valuable links may take the website in recovery mode which may take few days to few weeks to get fully recovered. But there can be many other factors as well resulting in the devaluation of the site so it is best to check all the things.
Technical, content and user experience issues
Google provides webmaster with wealth knowledge about what makes a site more user-friendly. Go through all the information thoroughly and make your website as ideal as the Google suggests. You can get all these information from- Google webmaster guidelines, Search engine land’s periodic table of SEO factors. Everything you want to know about creating an ideal site is present in these documents.
Read every single detail you get about Google updates and algorithms from the web. Take note of the things on which Google emphasize the more, follow them, work on them and you will never feel surprised with any other Google update. Follow all the white-hat techniques, don’t do spammy links. By taking the entire necessary steps, your website won’t face any devaluation.
