Google released yet another core algorithm update on Monday and took the unusual step of announcing it in advance. This has caused some people to wonder whether this will be a significant update that causes widespread changes to keyword rankings and search results pages.
Wondering if you’ve been negatively impacted? Here are four warning signs to watch for:
- Keywords that trend down and stay down after a week or two. It can take that long for the algorithm to roll out to all of Google’s indexes.
- Traffic drops on high value, high traffic landing pages, including your home page.
- An increase in bounce rates can indicate that keywords that delivered qualified traffic to your site are no longer ranking well
- An unexpected spike in Google SEM traffic could indicate a dip in organic traffic due to lost top of page 1 rankings.
If you are negatively impacted by the core update, the best tactic is to make sure content is authoritative, informative and complete. Ensure titles and page headers preview on page content and describe it accurately, and update as necessary. Finally, check that content is well-suited to mobile devices and displays properly and loads quickly. Want help? Contact us.
It’s possible to be positively impacted by a Google core update, too. Improved rankings that last after a week or two, traffic increases, and a decrease in bounce rates are all good indicators that the core update has helped your site.
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