Chap 9: Google Algorithm Updates and Manual Actions/Penalties

Google Algorithm Updates

• General Overview
  • Google regularly updates its algorithms to improve search result quality and penalize sites violating guidelines.
  • Algorithm changes and manual penalties affect organic traffic significantly, potentially devastating businesses.
  • Essential to understand these updates and penalties for website recovery.

Google Algorithm Updates

• Types of Updates
  • Changes in search functionality, layout, and relevance algorithms happen daily.
  • Major updates include specific algorithms like BERT, Passages, MUM, and core updates.

Key Algorithms and Their Impact

• BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers)

  • Introduced in October 2019, improves natural language processing by considering context before and after keywords.
  • Enhanced understanding of complex queries; rolled out widely across 70 languages in December 2019.

• SMITH (Siamese Multi-depth Transformer-based Hierarchical Encoder)

  • Announced in April 2020 for understanding longer passages, building on BERT's capabilities.

• Passages Algorithm (October 2020)

  • Identifies specific passages in a webpage to answer highly specific user queries.
  • Example use: tailoring results for queries like pest control at home.

• MUM (Multitask Unified Model)

  • Released in May 2021; searches across modalities (text, images, audio) and 75 languages.
  • Provides tailored recommendations based on complex user queries.
  • Example: preparing for a hike based on weather conditions.

Page Experience and Core Web Vitals

• Page Experience Signals
  • Rolled out mid-June to late August 2021; measures user experience on a site.

Core Web Vitals Metrics

1. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures loading time of main content (target: <2.5 seconds).
2. First Input Delay (FID): Measures responsiveness after user interactions (target: <0.1 seconds).
3. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Assesses visual stability, avoiding unexpected layout shifts.

• Additional Components
  • Mobile Friendliness: Ensures good experience on mobile devices.
  • Secure Browsing: HTTPS implementation is now a ranking signal.
  • Absence of intrusive interstitials: Users should access content easily without disruptions.

Link Spam Update

• Link Spam Updates
  • Targets suspicious links impacting search rankings; encourages proper use of rel attributes (nofollow, sponsored).
  • First rolled out July 26, 2021, followed by another in December 2022 using AI (SpamBrain).

Helpful Content Update (Aug/Sept 2022)

• Focuses on delivering high-value content to users, discouraging search engine-centric publishing practices.
• Affects English-language queries initially, then globally.
• Sitewide Impact: Non-helpful content now negatively affects overall site ranking.

Core Algorithm Updates

• Broad Core Updates
  • Implemented to enhance search quality and transparency in the ranking process.
  • Historical update dates included several significant releases throughout the years.

Examples of Past Updates

• March 15, 2023, September 12, 2022, and others spanning back to 2018.

Google Search Console

• Functionality
  • Provides insights into site performance and visibility in searches.
  • Key features: traffic query information, crawl errors, and security issues.

Setup and Maintenance

• Create by validating site ownership via HTML tag, Google Analytics, or Tag Manager.
• Essential for ongoing SEO strategy.

Webmaster Guidelines

• Core Principles
  • Pages should be created for users, not just for search engines.
  • Avoid deceptive practices and low-value content.
  • Maintain high-quality, unique content to ensure good user experiences.

Practices to Avoid

• Automatically generated content, link schemes, cloaking, hidden text, doorway pages, etc.

Good Hygiene Practices

• Regularly monitor for hacks and spam submissions.
• Keep software updated; moderate user-generated content.

Content Quality

• Evaluating Content: Google emphasizes original, well-researched, and engaging content. Poor quality (thin, unoriginal, inaccurate) leads to lower rankings.
• Recent algorithms like Panda and Coati focus heavily on quality metrics.

Diagnosing Traffic Loss

• Traffic Analytics: Use analytics tools to isolate drops in organic traffic.
• Investigate Cause: Check for manual penalties through Search Console; analyze historic data for algorithm updates.

Manual Actions and Penalties

• Types of Penalties: Clear guidelines on what constitutes violations leading to penalties.

Common Penalties

• Thin content, partial link penalties, user-generated spam, etc.

Addressing Penalties

• Understanding issues, fixing problematic content, and submitting reconsideration requests are key steps.

Conclusion

• Continual adaptation to Google’s updates and guidelines is crucial for retaining and enhancing search visibility. Focus on user experience and high-quality content to succeed in an evolving digital landscape.