Has your site slipped down the SERPs (search engine results pages)? It might be a Google algorithm update. These updates to ranking factors happen every single day, with ‘core’ updates happening 2-3 times a year on average. Understanding these updates – and how to recover from them – is key to making sure your website reaches the right people.
With Google’s November 2024 core update in full swing, a number of sites have felt the impact on their search rankings. While it’s important to wait until the update has fully rolled out before diving into your traffic changes, knowing how to navigate these changes can help you safeguard your website’s position in the SERPs.
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What is the Google algorithm?
At the heart of Google’s search functionality is a complex system that Google uses to decide how webpages should rank in the SERPs. Google discovers your page exists by crawling it, it then indexes the page by determining what it’s about. Then, those indexed pages are served to users when they conduct a search.
The number of web pages across the world wide web is always increasing, but as of 2024, this figure sits around 30 billion. So sorting the best quality results for your search query is a pretty mammoth task.
That’s where the Google algorithm comes in. The algorithm looks at lots of factors and signals, such as the words you use in a query, the relevance and usability of the pages, and the expertise of the source. The weight applied to these factors depends on the intent of your query, e.g. content freshness is a key factor for current news topics, but not so much for an informational blog post.
While many people in the SEO (search engine optimisation) industry believe there are 200+ ranking factors that are constantly changing, according to Google, key search signals include:
• Meaning
• Relevance
• Quality
• Usability
• Context
The result? Google returns the most relevant results for your search query.
What is a Google algorithm update?
As the world’s most popular search engine (processing 8.5 billion searches every day!), Google is always improving the way it determines the most helpful and reliable search results. Google algorithm updates happen when Google changes the set of rules it uses to rank pages in the SERPs.
What is a Google core update?
A Google core algorithm update is a significant change that Google makes to the ranking formula that impacts a large number of pages. These updates happen every few months and are designed to improve the relevance and quality of the ranking pages.
Following a core update, you might find that pages that ranked highly for their target keywords now rank lower, and vice versa.
Why is the Google algorithm so complex?
Google’s algorithm is infamously complex. That’s because Google wants to crack down on spammy tactics, known as ‘black-hat’ techniques, such as keyword stuffing and buying backlinks on dodgy websites, as well as low quality websites.
10 years ago, if you scrolled down to the bottom of a top ranking page, chances are, there would be 100s of mentions of the target keyword made the same colour as the page background, hiding them from view. Nowadays, there’s a limit to the number of keywords you can repeat on a page without it sounding odd to visitors (known as keyword density) – most SEO experts recommend 1-3 keywords per 100 words of content.
Essentially, it’s all about user experience – Google wants users to find the most valuable content possible for their search queries.
It’s important to remember that not all ranking drops are related to the updates. Google is always updating its processes and changes in your performance could be impacted by several factors, including changes your competitors have made or the way users have interacted with your page. For example, when competitors update their pages, Google tends to A/B test pages in different ranking positions in the SERPs before restabilising.
What’s the latest core algorithm update?
Google’s latest core algorithm update was released on the 11th November 2024, and is the third update of 2024, with the other two taking place in March and August.
Google shared the following on X:
“Today we released the November 2024 core update. We’ll add it to our ranking release history page in the near future and update when the rollout is complete.”
Although we don’t understand the full extent of this update yet, there are a few trends we’ve noticed so far:
- From 14th November, some domains are experiencing ranking changes
- The impact differs between UK and US markets
- The impact of the update is gradually increasing each day throughout rollout
Throughout 2024, the core algorithm updates have emphasised the following:
- Creating high-quality content that meets Google’s E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trust) criteria
- Prioritising user experience with webpages that provide clear, concise answers to search queries
- Using AI responsibly, integrating it carefully and enhancing it manually – rather than a copy-and-paste job
How to recover your rankings following a Google algorithm update
Recoveries look different, because there are different types of recovery. But this update recovery checklist is a great place to start.
1. Confirm the algorithm update
First things first, you’ll need to confirm whether the changes you’ve seen are indeed the result of an algorithm update. Keep an eye on Google’s Search Central blog, set up Google Alerts for ‘Google Algorithm Update’ and follow reputable sources to stay alerted to news of an update.
2. Analyse the impact on your organic traffic
You should also rely on your own data at this stage, as identifying patterns will help you pinpoint the purpose of the update – what issue is Google trying to address? Is it single pages that have dropped impact or your whole website?
Data collection and analysis will be key to narrowing down your scope for diagnosing potential causes for the traffic drop.
You can do this easily with Google Analytics 4 (GA4). In GA4, go to your reports and select ‘Acquisition’ > ‘Traffic Acquisition’. Filter so you can see organic search traffic and set your start and end date to track organic performance over time. You can filter this further by setting the dimension to ‘Session source/medium’, which will show you exactly where your organic traffic is coming from (e.g. Google, Bing, Yahoo).
3. Review changes to the SERPs
As well as your data, it’s important to head to the SERPs. Google your primary search terms and see which pages are now ranking in the top positions. This will help you see which types of pages and content Google is preferring and give you ideas on how you can tweak your content to start performing better.
One of the biggest changes to the SERPs in 2024 was the rollout of AI Overviews, AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of the page for common terms.
4. Go back to basics with technical SEO checks
Technical issues on your website could be making the impact of the update worse. Making sure your website performs well technically can make it easier for Google to crawl, index and rank your pages.
Using tools like Google’s core web vitals report can help identify and fix issues like slow loading times. Technical SEO audits can also flag issues like pages with duplicate meta content, broken links and low word count.
At Bubble Design, our web development team provides maintenance to our clients to make sure their websites perform as they should, but we recommend redesigning your website every 2-3 years in line with the rate at which technology, user preferences and digital marketing strategies change.
5. Review & improve on-site content quality
Once your technical SEO is up-to-scratch, you can shift your focus to your on-page content. Regular content reviews are a key part of any digital marketing strategy – and it’s a great way to make sure you’re getting the best value from your webpages, algorithm update or not!
A content review comprises a full audit of the text, images and design features of your website. During the review, you’ll analyse the performance of every page of your website so see which ones are ranking well and which ones aren’t. Ultimately, increasing traffic to your website!
You can use tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Screaming Frog and SEMRush to pull a list of your URLs and important information about each of them.
Ask yourself when you last updated the pages, if the content quality is genuinely good, whether you’ve got multiple pages targeting the same search term, and who is outranking you for those keywords.
Need a content review?
Get in touch for a full site content audit and see exactly which pages you need to improve – and how!
6. Compare against competitors
Chances are, you won’t be the only one impacted by a Google algorithm update. Your competitors will have noticed changes to their organic performance too! You can use SEO tools to analyse your competitors. Focus on keywords that they’ve gained and you’ve lost.
7. Backlink profiling
One ranking factor that isn’t going away any time soon is the number of backlinks to your website. You can use an SEO tool like SEMRush or Ahrefs to evaluate your link profile. Look for any high-quality links you’ve lost, or an influx of low-quality links. You can then use the Disavow tool in Google Search Console to remove spammy backlinks that might be harming your rankings.
8. Start improving your content
Now that you’ve got a complete view of your organic performance and what’s impacting it, you can start to improve the quality of your content. Keep user search intent in mind, making sure the content perfectly aligns with your target audience’s expectations.
9. Keep a pulse on your performance
There’s no such thing as a one-and-done approach to SEO. It’s an ongoing investment that reaps long-term benefits. Once you’ve tweaked (or completely overhauled) your content strategy, it’s important to continually monitor your site’s performance.
You should closely monitor key metrics and user behaviour with SEO reports, adapting and refining your strategy based on the data.
Remember that recovery takes time – SEO is a continuous process and reverting back to pre-algorithm update rankings won’t happen overnight. You may need to go back to the chalkboard and try different strategies for improving your pages.
10. The key takeaway? Keep user experience at the heart of your website
The whole purpose of Google’s algorithm updates is to make things better for users – and user experience will always play a vital role in your SEO efforts. Improve your users’ experience on your website by keeping your webpages relevant, crafting content that resonates with your brand’s target audience – and you’re already on track for recovery, and growth.
Need help?
Not sure where to start with improving your rankings? The content specialists at Bubble Design are here to help. Get in touch with your questions and we’ll be more than happy to advise.
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Need a content review?
Get in touch for a full site content audit and see exactly which pages you need to improve – and how!
