Fix Your SEO For Each Google Update

Google is accustomed to rolling out algorithm updates on a regular basis. However, not all Google algorithm updates are able to impact the SERPs in the same way. All along Google engineers have primarily been focusing their attention on delivering most relevant search engine results to users’ queries. This post is to help you fix your SEO for each Google Update.

Moreover, they kept on working towards preventing people from cheating. They tried other alternatives of showing the most relevant web pages on top of the searches. However, experience has revealed that some Google updates could be completely finishing off all organic search traffic of an SME.

Most people are left wondering about ways to discover if the algorithm has been changed and ways to fix the SEO that has been impacted by an update.

Some Prominent Algorithms Impacting SMEs

Some of the major Google algorithms that affect SMEs include Panda, Penguin and most recently Fred. Different algorithms could be relevant to certain types of businesses.

Google Update: Panda

Panda updates have been targeting poor-quality content or even the content that has been taken from content farms. In the case of SMEs often you would discover that some product descriptions which have been copied and pasted from supplier sites would go missing from the search results.

This is the way Panda identifies duplicate content and penalizes the site using it. All of 2011 and 2012 witnessed these Google Panda updates. Even today various companies are dealing with Panda issues and the Panda updates impact different companies in different ways. To know more visit SandCrestSEO here.

Diagnosis & Recovery

Use Google Analytics to identify content whose SERP ranking has gone down drastically. Consider using a reliable duplicate checker such as Copyscape to look for duplicate content. Detect the keywords for which your ranking has fallen, and then find the new higher-ranked pages through a Google search for these keywords.

If this content is better as compared to yours, it is clear that you have been hit by Google Panda.

The only way of fixing Panda penalties is by generating original content which could be productive and valuable for the reader.

Google Update: Penguin

Google Penguin has been released for identifying and down-ranking all those sites that have unnatural or spammy link profiles. Many sites are penalized by Penguin for following manipulative link strategies. However, when Google releases another new Penguin update, all those penalized sites that have worked towards the elimination of spam links could achieve their previous rankings.

Moreover, other new sites and also sites that had escaped being hit previously could be caught by the latest Penguin update. Penguin is pretty effective in identifying black hat techniques such as switch redirects, doorway pages, and bait/hidden links etc. Penguin updates are released on a regular basis and they impact the SMEs in a major way.

Penguin impacts sites that include in their profile one or maybe more of the following kinds of links:

• Links from sites created solely for the purpose of SEO link building
• Links from low-quality spam sites
• Paid links
• Links coming from excessively optimized anchor text
• Links from sites that are irrelevant to the topic

Diagnosis & Recovery

Use Google’s search console for monitoring your site’s performance. Browse search console list displaying all the inbound links. If any link seems spammy you could consider pasting the linking URL in the free MozCast’s Open Site Explorer for spam rating.

You must eliminate the harmful links at once. In the beginning, you could request the webmaster of the concerned linking site to remove the link from your profile. But in case you need to deal with multiple harmful links simply use Google Disavow Tool that would be asking Google to disregard those harmful links while appraising your link profile.

Google Update: Fred

Since March 8, 2017, the SEO community has been taken by storm as they encountered major traffic losses and unexplained ranking fluctuations. The SEO community was in fact, hit by another of Google’s algorithm updates that had penetrating implications for the SMEs.

It is currently targeting advertisements-heavy and low-value content sites. It is penalizing poor quality content which exists solely for generating income from ads. Kinds of sites impacted by Fred are:

• Advertising heavy
• Shallow content
• Affiliate heavy
• Few local business sites

Diagnosis & Recovery

First of all, you need to understand the common features of a low-quality advertisement and affiliate site.

• A tremendous amount of keyword-based content which obviously, targets keywords.
• An incredible ratio of affiliate links and conspicuous advertisements existing within the content all around the site.
• No original video content, only text-oriented articles.
• Content is custom-tailored to generate revenues, instead of responding effectively to users’ search query.

The only way to fix this is by staying away from publishing content solely for the purpose of receiving sponsorship revenues. First of all, concentrate on publishing quality content. Do not be spammy and avoid following outbound links to advertisers and sponsors.

Conclusion

You must always keep in mind the guidelines provided by the Google Webmaster. Focus on building a fabulous site based on solid content. Follow the recovery tips and assist your site in not only staying afloat but keep on growing.