You go to bed; everything is fine. You wake up, and BAM, a mystery Google update smacks you in the face. Why does Google always have to do us the dirty like that?
You might not know it, but Google changes its search algorithm 500-600 times annually! Those are usually minor changes that don’t really affect a website. It’s the beefy massive updates when Google decides to spice up everyone’s life and release more dramatic changes, which you need to protect your website against.
Read on to find out more.
What Are Google Updates?
A Google update is an adjustment in the standards and techniques that the search engine uses to rank different online sites. They’re minor and work in the background – nobody really talks about them, and they don’t bring dramatic changes.
These changes can be minimal and happen daily – most of the time, we don’t know they’re happening; they won’t affect genuine websites and content. Some slightly bigger updates aim to improve user experiences, putting the most useful search responses at the top of the essential search engine page results (SERPs).
Google will also release regular spam and helpful content updates to increase user safety and overall satisfaction with the search engine.
The ‘big daddy’ updates are called core updates. Google will announce them, but the details are often elusive. They often dramatically changed the ranking system, challenging website design quality and content – sending everyone into a meltdown.
The Dreaded Google Algorithm Update
The dreaded Google algorithm updates. The big daddy updates. The ones that get every man and his dog talking.
Why? Because they can, literally instantly, destroy your website’s visibility and positioning, frequently with little to no warning. There were so many victims of the Google Penguin and Panda updates because they invested in spammy-link building and poor-quality content.
But at the end of the day, unless there’s an understanding of SEO, people don’t always know what a spammy link is unless it’s outright spam. You also can’t predict what Google will define as poor-quality content – although we do know that it’s almost always content with no value.
With those two major updates – the Penguin and the Panda – websites heavily relying on black-hat SEO techniques were swiftly dealt heavy punishment in terms of demoted search engine page ranking, little to no traffic from organic searches, and even, in some cases, manual penalties.
Slightly more recently, updates such as the September 2023 ‘Helpful Content Update’ focus on how good and helpful the content is rather than how much is available. With that update, websites filled with auto-generated or keyword-stuffing content were placed lower in the rankings.
Google’s most recent update in August 2024 focused on:
- major software updates
- a focus on rewarding small publishers
- ranking and traffic changes
- checking AI content isn’t bulk and invaluable content.
Weatherproofing Your Website Against the Google Update Storm
Depending on how big the Google storm is, ‘weatherproofing’ your site has benefits. People always go crazy for Google updates, but as long as it’s a high-quality website with genuine, impactful content and it isn’t full of spam links, Google stays away from dramatic consequences.
Still, here’s what we think you can do:
- Create Authoritative Content
- Focus on E-E-A-T – Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness
- Design for User Experience
- Build a Strong Backlink Profile of Organic Links
- Monitor SEO Metrics and Trends.
What/When is the Next Google Update?
The August 2024 update was the most recent. Fear not: there are no plans for a core update anytime soon. The August 2024 update actually created issues with the ranking system that took a while to resolve, so we think Google still has to recover from that before they mess everything up…again.
We’ll most likely see regular daily and weekly updates for a while before another Google mystery update comes our way.
Google mystery updates won’t be a threat if you have a high-quality website and follow the general Google rules. Good content, good backlinks, and good organic traffic – that’s all that really matters in the eyes of Google. And don’t worry, you can rest assured that when the rumours of the next mystery Google update surface, everyone will be talking about it.
