Google has become one of the most dominant companies on the planet by focusing on user experience. This is a fantastic strategy; as it’s ultimately lead them to generating $36.4 billion in ad revenue in the first quarter of 2019 alone. That’s right: $36.4 billion.
SEO LI is Long Island’s leading SEO service. Naturally, this means we rely on the intricate mechanics of Google to optimize our clients’ web presence. And, we in the SEO community are noticing the impact of Google’s September 2019 core update.
Google performs these updates to ensure they remain the world’s most popular search engine. They’re not making changes to their algorithm to sabotage SEO companies, but we have to learn to adapt to them nonetheless.
During Google’s core update last March, we saw a jarring shift in the valuing and devaluing of indexed pages. This update seems to be similar in nature, and focuses on quality content from quality websites. And, if you’re still allowing an SEO company to employ Black Hat SEO, its time to make a change!
6 Tips to Improve SEO After Google Core Update
So how do SEO experts navigate these constant tweaks in algorithm? Is there a way to survive Google’s updates and these sudden drops in searches and traffic?
Mercifully, the answer is yes, and here’s how:
1. Audit & Improve Website Content
As with all Google Core Updates: Content is King. The primary focus should be on the value of the website content. Basically what it means is: take your mediocre content and make it incredible.
Any content that no longer seems relevant, it’s best to delete and 301 redirect those URLs. Many who tried this strategy saw a drop in traffic. But they also agreed that a short-term dip lead to long-term growth and their traffic increased again.
Even if blog posts are pretty new, it’s recommended to trim and refine your material at least once a year. It’s a sure sign that content is updated, giving your users the best possible experience.
2. Selling Online? Go International!
Most people in the world don’t actually speak English. Optimizing your Google presence can be difficult, but in other countries that don’t speak English: it’s actually a lot easier.
SEO LI can help engineer your site to excel with international SEO. By providing you with an international URL structure, we can target particular countries. We do this by using a country code top-level domain (ccTLD), a subdomain, subdirectory or subfolder, a gTLD with language parameters, or even using a different domain name altogether.
An added bonus to international expansion is it creates a much better experience for users. They can read your content in their language.
3. Make Repairs!
Even the most casual Internet user understands the importance of having functional media on a website.
When we expect to see images and instead see small red X’s, we immediately disengage. And when we click on links expecting a fresh new page to load and find it’s broken, we’re frustrated. These contribute to a poor user experience.
That’s why it’s important to comb through your content and fix any broken links, pictures or media files. It’s important to do it at least once a quarter.
4. Fix the Errors Within Google Search Console
Even if you’re not regularly logging into Google Search Console, they’ll send you emails if there’s enough errors.
When you receive these emails, fix them immediately. Once they’re fixed, you’ll receive a confirmation email from Google. Believe it or not: most people ignore these messages.
Acknowledging these errors will reduce search traffic fluctuations. The fluctuations will never stop entirely, but fixing errors will reduce them.
5. Brand Building
There are many who say the future of SEO is brands. The websites that are most successful on Google don’t necessarily have the most backlinks, but they feature big brands.
Users don’t always consult Google for a specific service, but they will consult Google for a specific brand.
For example: if you have a craving for pancakes and want to find the nearest place to get them, you won’t search “pancakes,” you’ll search “IHOP.”
Building a brand will provide you not only with search traffic, but it’ll provide you with a wider variety of traffic sources.
6. Watch Your Competition
Sometimes, even the slightest advantages over your competitors can have a marvelous impact.
That’s why it’s incredibly useful to keep an eye on them. Subscribe to their e-mail list, follow them on social media, even order their products or services to give them a proper evaluation.
Do everything you can to remain informed on your competitors. If you can spot a chink in their armor that you can improve on, you’ll end up the users’ preference.
Conclusion
If you want to have the upper hand, do what Google does: focus on your users and providing them with the best possible experience. Search traffic will come and go, numbers will rise and drop, but these techniques will help keep you afloat.
SEO experts agree that the primary focus should be optimizing your site for people and not search engines. Editing your content, expanding your presence, repairing defective content, building your brand and watching your competition are all proven ways to maintain a notable web presence.
Google updates don’t need to have a permanent impact on your ranking.
