In 2023, it’s hard to imagine a world without Google. These days, the search engine is almost essential for our daily lives. We use it to find out more about topics that interest us, book appointments, and even shop online.
However, the game might be set to change. As technology continues to evolve, so too do our habits and expectations when using Google. Search engine optimizers often fall into the trap of making the same mistakes. This leads to an empty results page and a loss of potential customers.
Most webmasters and SEO professionals work by putting up more content, and more backlinks, and they usually also set monthly or quarterly growth targets. Goal setting isn’t a bad thing but people are usually setting the wrong goals when SEO growth is the target.
Keep this in mind: 80% of the movement will happen in two to three days out of the year when there’s been a release of Google core algorithm update.
Typically, your website’s traffic gets mild progress as you add more links. Sometimes the progress is ascending, sometimes flat, and even unfortunately down sometimes. But when Google releases a core update, that’s the very time you could launch into another tier of awesomeness or get decimated back down to the little leagues.
What is Google Core Algorithm Update?
A core algorithm update is an alteration to various parts of Google’s algorithm. Even though the algorithm is undergoing unnoticeable changes, a core algorithm update tends to be more apparent.
Google performs minor updates to its ranking algorithm. Minor updates also consist of changes that are developed to improve the relevance and quality of the search results on Google. They are distinguished from their core counterparts by affecting rarer index web pages.
A Google core update may affect about 5% to 10% of all searches, whereas a minor update may influence just 0.1% of all searches. Minor updates are most common, usually occurring on a daily basis, while core updates are usually planned months in advance and can take a few weeks to fully roll out.
Basically, a core update is a full ham multiple ranking factor overhaul that tries to redefine search results.
During a core update, Google assigns a quality score to each of which is consist of a bunch of multiple ranking factors link quality, content, E.A.T., topical authority, technical SEO, etc. — and websites get new quality scores and there will be a shuffling around the rankings. When this happens, your website gets to hang in the balance.
Aside from focusing on content creation and backlinking, it’s important not to miss the mark on these ranking factors. You have to wait until the next update for another shot.
If around 80% of your SEO movement happens on these core updates, your SEO strategy needs to focus on preparing your website for them. Since the majority of your growth and decimation are defined by these core updates, you’d be losing quite a lot if you don’t focus your attention on them.
So…what can you do to position your website for 100%, 200%, and 300% gains on core updates?
Topical Authority
We mentioned earlier that one of the factors that can affect ranking and positioning on Google is topical authority.
Topical Authority is the measure of how well a page is likely to rank for a given topic. It is based on a variety of factors, including on-page content, off-page signals, and user behavior.
A page with high topical authority is one that is considered to be an expert on the given topic. This could be due to several factors, including:
- The quality of the on-page content
- The number and quality of inbound links from other websites
- The amount of social engagement (shares, likes, etc.)
- User behaviors such as time spent on site and click-through rate
In search engine optimization, the higher the perceived authority a page has, the better the likelihood of ranking well in organic searches.
For instance, a blog post about search engine optimization written by a famous expert in the industry would bear more weight than a post from a beginner or someone who has not made himself an authoritative connoisseur on a topic.
Moreover, a post from a brand-new company would not carry much weight because no one knows or trusts them yet. Topical authority is significant because it shows how well you comprehend your audience and what they are searching for on the internet.
You can make use of Keyword Cupid, Security.org, or utilize Google itself to establish topical authority.
Complete Website Audit
Another good way to position yourself in Google is by doing a complete website audit— you need to check your site for quality score improvement. And you need to do this periodically since you don’t know when the next Google core update will hit.
Assuming that you are doing a complete website audit, there are a few key components that you should always include. A full website audit will check for and identify any areas of improvement on your website including (but not limited to) the following:
- Analytics & Reporting
- Site & Server Uptime/Downtime
- Security
- Site Speed
- SEO Rankings & Traffic
- Usability & Functionality
While some of these areas may seem self-explanatory, each one is important in its own way and can have a significant impact on your website as a whole.
For example, if your site is down or slow, visitors will likely leave and not come back. If your site is not secure, you could lose sensitive information or worse, put your visitors at risk. Likewise, if your SEO is poor, you could be losing out on valuable traffic and potential customers.
You need to go through two special audits before an update: a content refresh audit and a technical audit.
Basically, a technical audit is more about making life easy for Google. You see, Google’s everyday job is nuts. They need to look over the internet, identifying every single website. They need to what the content in each of these web pages means and organize them for everything that we are searching for every day.
Admit it, we are so spoiled by the platform that it would cross our minds to shift search engines if the whole search process takes longer than a microsecond.
With a technical audit, you can make Google’s job easier, and in return, it would reward you with traffic. You could easily perform technical audits with tools like Ahrefs, Siteliner, and Screaming Frog.
Here’s a checklist of what you should look out for in technical audit:
- crawl errors
- crawl depth
- missing titles, descriptions, and alt tags
- HTTPS errors
- broken links
- duplicate content
- indexing issues
- schema errors
- core web vitals and a slow site
The next is the content refresh audit. It is the content audit of the existing content of your website.
If your website is more than a year old, it’s time for a content refresh audit. Google loves fresh content, and so do your readers. A content refresh audit will help you take inventory of your existing content, identify gaps, and come up with a plan to create new, relevant, and engaging content.
To start your audit, ask yourself the following questions:
- What topics are my readers interested in?
- What problems can I help them solve?
- What questions do they have that I can answer?
- What kind of content would be most helpful to them?
- Is my existing content still relevant and accurate?
- Does it need to be updated or expanded upon?
- Have any new developments or changes arisen that I need to address?
Once you’ve answered these questions, you’ll have a good idea of what needs to be done to freshen up your website’s content. From there, you can create an editorial calendar and start pumping out fresh, original content that will keep your readers coming back for more.
E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust)
E-A-T was voted as the second most important ranking factor to improve before a core update takes place.
By expertise, it means that your content has to exceed typical information that people can find on the subject. Authoritativeness requires your content to be concocted by a credible source. Trust requires your content to be factually accurate and supported by credible sources.
