Whenever Google algorithm updates happen, it becomes a nightmarish experience for some and a close shave for others. Only a handful of websites manage to get around them, and since these changes are always so sudden, hardly anyone gets time to prepare for them. That’s why the magnitude of its impact feels bigger.
In 2019, the search engine giant surprised and shocked many with the June Core Update and now, the recent BERT update. More recently, sites have had to navigate a major core algorithm update that kicked in in January 2020.
The question is – why does Google do this and how can you recover from a core algorithm update?
SEO is not always a simple process. If it were, all product and service sites would have ranked higher in the search engine and not the content-rich pages.
In its ambition to give the best user experience, Google keeps trying things. It doesn’t intend to affect your business or rankings. Like other things, it isn’t perfect, and that probably explains why they tweak and make changes whenever something doesn’t turn out the way it should have.
And that’s why your website’s position also gets shaken. But you don’t need to freak out if you pay attention to your user’s needs. However, you’ll have to take some of the algorithm’s suggestions very seriously. For example, when they emphasised making all sites mobile-friendly, you must optimise your sites accordingly. But changing your game plan with every update can be tiring, time-consuming, and unproductive.
So, it’s better to think long-term and focus on the performance of your website so that it delivers a smooth user experience. Here are a few things that some SEO experts in New York swear by for this experience. Let’s dig into them.
Content update
Also referred to as pruning and cropping, this process entails updating mediocre content and removing or redirecting the irrelevant ones. After doing this, there can be some dip in the traffic to your site, but it usually only lasts for a short time.
If you want long-term success, it shouldn’t bother you. However, you can expect improvements in the rankings when you eliminate duplicate content from your blogs. Some SEO gurus recommend that even new blogs need to update every year to serve their users best.
It can be an extensive process as you first need to have all of your website URLs in one place, include the number of visitors per page, add backlinks, and the number of times those URLs got shared on social channels.
When you have collected the data, you can optimise, delete, redirect, or do nothing about it.
Global expansion
In a population of nearly seven billion worldwide, most people are non-English speaking. It’s not easy to win Google. Nevertheless, you can target those countries, such as France and Germany, where English is less prevalent. In countries such as these, there is less competition, and you can gain a higher position quickly. Even though search volume could be lower, you get a chance to rise sooner.
So, consider increasing your SEO footprint beyond your city or country.
Media files, images, broken links
Imagine you visit a website or a blog and you find that 50% of the links on the platform are broken. Those links could have been particularly interesting because of the information they contained. This kind of let-down can drive you crazy. It’s even worse and unprofessional when you also find images in the same shape.
Now think about your users and how they would feel if they encountered such issues. It’s vital to keep all media files, images, and links intact and functional. For this task, you can use specific tools that make the whole process very easy to accomplish. And don’t worry, as you needn’t do it daily. Reviewing them every quarter will suffice.
Branding
If you examine search results, you’ll realise that most of the websites that feature at the top are mostly famous brands and not sites with a large number of backlinks. The explanation for this is simple enough—high-profile brands have people’s loyalty and trust, and Google, in turn, values them highly.
A brand building exercise can benefit you on many levels, not least of which will result in an improvement in your search traffic. Then, when your brand is more familiar, you’ll not have to depend on Google search so much. Your customers and site traffic will come from diverse sources.
Competitors
Keeping an eye on your competition is critical so that you don’t fall behind. For this, you don’t have to be ten times better than them. That would require both money and labour, making it is an unrealistic goal also. But a few smart hacks can prove magical.
For instance, you can sign up on your competitor’s website, subscribe to their email, follow their social accounts, and so on. These practices will keep you updated about what your peers are doing and allow you to plan out your strategies accordingly.
If you manage to leave them behind even by the smallest margin, users will remember you and give you priority. As a consequence, you’ll notice a surge in your traffic and ranking too. Conversions will also improve.
The idea of doing ten times better is also worth exploring, only because if you manage to achieve it, your competitors won’t be able to match your steps. However, the other side of the coin is that you’ll need to do a lot of work to keep the advantage.
Conclusion
While absorbing all this knowledge is easy, implementing it can seem daunting. As a business owner, you might not have the quality time needed to take care of these crucial elements of your business. But if you hire a trusted search optimization firm, you can reap all the benefits without getting personally involved in the entire process.
Look for a well-established SEO company that can shoulder all these responsibilities while ensuring that your brands dominate almost all the search engines and not just Google. Plus, these SEO experts will also be able to get you quality traffic for lead generation, conversions, and revenue.
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