Google Core Updates Causes Drop In Website Traffic: Is It A Myth Or A Friendly Warning?

All About Google Core Update & Algorithm Update

SEO Experts and SEO Community are aware that during the past 2 years of the pandemic, it has caused a lot of shifts in users’ “search behaviour” and what users need from Google. Many have changed their routine, from their daily commute or some moving permanently to a work from home set up. It has even influenced how they shop or eat seeing as the majority moved to delivery services.

The same goes for Google. It is their responsibility to rebalance how the google search console shows the results to match up with the current need of users for the maximum output for users experiences. Some may have benefited from previous updates and gotten fewer benefits in this core update, and some are the exact opposite. To sum up, the core update’s primary focus is the classic SEO factor, Website Performances (PC/Desktop), and Quality of content.

Classic SEO Factor

It is certain that the SEO factor still remains the pillar that all websites must follow. According to a Searchmetrics blog, “Losers from the Core Update rolled out June 2021 on June 2021 were often sites with thin content or those that focus on what Google calls YMYL (Your Money or Your Life)”. For example, finance, law, purchase recommendations, review, education and health. These websites offered advice, which is categorized as YMYL and those with thin content tend to be impacted negatively by this core update.

At the same time, some said the winner of these core updates are those that have higher domain ages, backlinks, and SEO factors. Why is that?  Because during the previous core update from Google, the main objective was to eliminate the spammy website by the use of “Black hat SEO”. This is where they use a discouraged (almost illegal) method to gain ranks from the Google algorithm in an unethical way. An example of this would be if a newly constructed website with low-quality content with massive backlinks appeared on the 1st page in the google search console.

Website Performance Affecting Google Updates

As a good SEO practitioner, there is no need to panic about these updates. The reason for the fluctuation can vary for each update, but Google tends to give more weight to different sectors in accordance with current users interests at the time. There are a total of  4 main causes of traffic drop in google Search traffic that we have to be familiar with. Please see Fig.1

Figure 1. 

Source: https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2021/07/search-traffic-drops

The first type of traffic is a technical issue, the graph on the top left shows a sudden drop in traffic and remains constant. Without future correction from the webmaster or SEO, the graph tends to remain idle or slightly swing due to technical issues on the on-site level. At the same time, the graph on the bottom left shows something quite similar to the previous graph. However, there are some fluctuations due to technical issues on a page level.

On the contrary, on the top right hand, the graph shows trends that go up and down according to the seasonal routine of the users. So there is no need to worry about this type of graph as it is natural. Meanwhile, on the bottom right there is a sudden drop and then quickly bounces back to the previous state. This is due to the glitch and side effects from Google.

As you can see, we should be more focused on the left side of the graph, because it directly affects site performance and is mainly caused by technical issues that Google spotted.  First, you have to make sure that all the points mentioned in the Google search console have to be clearly monitored and resolved in a fast-paced manner. This will improve your website performance significantly and of course from the users perspective as well.

All About Content

Apart from what was mentioned above, SEO friendliness is also another important factor and can not be ignored. For instance length of Title, Header, Meta description, Word count, and Image Size. All of these have to be put into the account and fully optimized, as well as the backlinks. There are also many sources mentioned in this core update that says Google has also put effort on pages that have high-quality content as well as mobile-friendliness or good user experience. As SEO practitioners, we should not let this happen.

 Here are some tips on how to create good content:

1. Content Quality – Valuable, Unique, Relevance and is it worth sharing this content?
2. Expertise – Does the content contain any spelling and grammar errors?
3. Presentation & Production – How well did you do your research and present your content on Google?
4. Is your content well displayed on both mobile devices and desktop screens for a great user and page experience?
5. Is it suggested to add some comparative questions?
6. Add better Q&As compared to competitors
7. Makes sure their sites provide the answers the viewers are looking for.

Lastly, the EAT content guideline is very important for site owners whenever you are trying to create content and make sure that it will be distinct and prominent on the search results or search engines. I would like to breakdown EAT content guidelines according to google into three components which are;

E – Expertise

From Google’s perspective, if the content is talking about skin problems, which source will be more trustable between digital marketing experts or well-known dermatologists? Google will tend to give more weight to dermatologists due to their expert knowledge and will be treated as a trusted source for search engines or search results.

A – Authoritativeness

Similar to expertise, when you are looking for skin problem advice, you tend to look for a person of authority in that specific area. Authoritative persons, in this case, will be dermatologists as they have the highest and deepest information regarding skin problems.

T – Trustworthiness

Say you are looking for skin problem advice and know you have two pieces of advice from two different dermatology news sites. You have to consider which one is more trustworthy, right? Google’s search engines also have the same thought process by determining referral traffic or the number of backlinks they have on each website.

Everything About Google Core Updates & Google Algorithm Updates

Don’t panic if you still don’t exactly know which area of your website or content will get affected by any core update, broad core algorithm update, or even the core web vitals update. I completely understand that besides improving your core business and sales, you have to take some time to have a better understanding of these updates as well, in order to get traffic and ranking visibility.

Move Ahead Media is a digital marketing agency that specialises in SEO data and we constantly update our knowledge on these core update rollouts. We are Google Premier Partners which means we can help you to ensure that you will have more time on improving your business and give you more time to do what you’re good at and leave the digital marketing to us! Our direct line to google representatives gives us the leverage over other agencies as are trained on these algorithm updates straight from Google themselves. Let us do the research for you, the same as how we deliver remarkable and measurable results to all of our clients. Contact us now for a free audit and consultation.