The SEO industry revolves around Google ranking websites and the changes in its algorithms. While Google doesn’t announce most changes that happen every day, the broad core algorithm update is a different story. One such update surfaced last week, and the industry speculation on the name alone was madness. So, Google decided to call it the “March 2019 Core Update” and avoid confusion. We analyzed the changes in the algorithm, who is affected and how. Let’s dive in!
‘One of the biggest updates in years!’
News first broke of the Google Florida Update 2 without much clarity on what this update did, just that Google was updating its algorithm and it was a broad core update. One thing’s for sure since it’s a broad core update, that means Google isn’t targeting any niche or any particular signals, like quality, said Roger Montti of Search Engine Journal. He also wrote: “One common issue I have discovered is what looks to me like a change in how Google interprets a search query. This can affect how a page is ranked.”
The official announcement came through Twitter by Danny Sullivan, Google SearchLiaison. He tweeted, “This week, we released a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. Our guidance about such updates remains as we’ve covered before…” He also referenced a series of earlier tweets that stand as guidelines for all such updates, “Sometimes, we make broad changes to our core algorithm. We inform about those because the actionable advice is that there is nothing in particular to ‘fix’, and we don’t want content owners to mistakenly try to change things that aren’t issues… Sometimes, an update may be more noticeable. We aim to confirm those when we feel there is actionable information that content owners might take. For example, when our Speed Update happened, we gave months of advanced notice and advice…We understand those who do less well after a core update change may still feel they need to do something. We suggest focusing on ensuring you’re offering the best content you can. That’s what our algorithms seek to reward…”
Emphasizing Danny’s words “Nothing in particular to fix”, British Digital Marketing News confirmed: “Broad core updates have not targeted anything. Broad core updates are improvements to Google’s overall algorithm for the purpose of better understanding search queries and web pages and through that, to match them and improve user satisfaction. It can be said that the underlying goal of all broad core updates has been to improve user satisfaction.”
What This Means for Marketers
So, the general consensus seems to be that unlike the Florida 1 update, where e-commerce and affiliate websites took a hit, this time around there doesn’t seem to be such a pattern. Websites of all stripes have seen dips and spikes in traffic but it’s estimated that the traffic will stabilize in the days to come.
Our main takeaway from this is to follow David’s advice and focus on creating valuable content that users actually need and look for. You can’t go wrong with a value-driven approach. Focus on providing a rewarding content experience and your website will be rewarded in turn with loyal users who keep returning to your website.
In older tweets, Danny Sullivan has also encouraged webmasters to utilize the following resources to ensure search qualities stay up and to egg them on to produce quality content users need:
1. General Guidelines to Search Quality Rating
2. Introduction to Google Search Console
3. How Google Makes Improvements to its Search Algorithm
Marketers following these are sure to be in the Google algorithms’ good books and presumably safe from taking any major hits when the search engine giant decides to crack down on rulebreakers.
What changes have you seen since Google updated its algorithm? Tell us on Twitter or LinkedIn or Facebook.