Google Core Updates come in waves. Each time one is announced, the SEO internet goes crazy.

Rumours swirl around about how the changes will affect how websites rank. SEO’s on Twitter (sorry X), LinkedIn and now TikTok will begin sharing charts and graphs showing how their site has:

• Fallen off a cliff thanks to the latest update
• Has risen like a phoenix from the flames thanks to their inherent Search Engine wizardry and understanding of the update

How could the Google Core Update affect you?

The good news is that the latest Google Core Update is designed to remove bad results from the internet. So if you’ve been creating original content for your website that is well written and useful to a person searching for your information, then you’re probably going to be ok.

If on the other hand, any of these apply to your website, you may have a big problem coming down the line:

• You’ve not added, or updated, any content on your website for a while.
• Pages on your site are created to work well for Search Engine Optimisation but don’t add any value to visitors to your pages. So called Spammy Sites
• Web pages have been added at pace either by humans or by using AI and automated systems. If you added 100’s or 1000’s of pages in a very short period.
• Content has been created using AI, like ChatGPT, and it hasn’t been sense checked or edited.
• The website has been buying backlinks from “dodgy sites” which are effectively link farms and aren’t relevant to your site at all.
• You’ve been using a number of so-called Black Hat techniques involving technical cheats. If your SEO has been doing this, they’ll know about it.

Google has promised to crack down on lots of these practices for a very long time, so it’ll be interesting to see if these updates finally make a difference.

When is the Google Core Update rolling out?

Officially it began rolling out in March 2024. It will take a while to complete, the internet is pretty big after all.

People have reported that they are already beginning to see the effects of the Google Core Update in falls in traffic and drops in ranking position.

How can you ensure that your website is unaffected by the Google Core Update?

The information Google and all the leading SEO websites, like Search Engine Land and Search Engine Journal are putting out is comprehensive and can be quite complex if Search Engine Optimisation isn’t your specialist subject.

However, the main advice is very simple, and hasn’t really changed for a very long time.

• Write content that is helpful to people. Not content written only to help you rank in search engines.
• Great knowledge of the many factors that impact SEO, must be used responsibly.

What to do if your website rankings drop?

Here’s what Google recommends you do if your rankings are affected by the update:

• There aren’t specific actions to take to recover. A negative rankings impact may not signal anything is wrong with your pages.
• Answer these questions to evaluate the quality of your content.
• Wait. You may see some improvement between updates, but the biggest changes will occur after each Google Core Update is rolled out.
• I’d add to this – DON’T PANIC!

Google releases updates all the time, carrying out tests in isolation before rolling them out, popping up new features and removing older ones. I’ve been in SEO for a very long time now and lots of tactics which used to be considered good practice are now frowned upon.

Don’t look at your site in isolation

If your rankings do drop, it may not be related to anything you’ve done wrong. It may just be that your competitors are doing something a little better, and that is affecting your rankings.

Updates can be an excuse to cover up bad practice, and they are very easy to blame rather than holding yourself responsible for inaction on your website.

Now is the time to audit your website

To be honest, this is something you should be doing at regular intervals, as it will show you where your content is out of date or no longer helping your marketing strategy.

We carry out audits for every website we work on, and to lay the foundations for every SEO project we embark upon. Not just when a new Google Core Update is announced.

Here are a few key things we do that you can apply to improve your content, your website’s performance, and your ranking.

• Review your business and marketing strategy and check your website against that. If there is content that no longer stacks up, then it needs to be revised or removed.
• Check your user journey. Can you achieve what the website is created for easily? That might be to buy online, fill in a form or something else. Get someone who’s not used to your site to give it a go.
• Review your keywords. When thinking of the keywords people will use to find their product or service, businesses are often miles off. So some research, be that using keyword software or asking your customers. Then create content that speaks to those keywords and offers value to users.

Sustained ranking for websites takes time

If all this sounds like a lot of work, that’s because it is. Despite what you may have read on the internet, there is no secret recipe to ranking your website, short of good content.

Luckily for you, ranking websites, using content created for humans by humans is what we do really well and we’ve done it for a long time now. So, if you’re worried that you’re about to be affected by the latest Google Core Update, or you want to use SEO to drive your business forward, just give us a call and we’ll help you out.