Find out how this search engine core update will impact your site traffic.

If Google core updates give you anxiety, you are in good company and for good reason. Google algorithm updates have been known to take sites down permanently. It’s been more than six months since the last Google search engine core update, and now the company is rolling out the first broad core update this year. The update was announced by Google on May 25^th.

“We confirm broad core updates because they typically produce some widely notable effects. Some sites may note drops or gains during them. We know those with sites that experience drops will be looking for a fix, and we want to ensure they don’t try to fix the wrong things. Moreover, there might not be anything to fix at all,” the statement reads.

Unlike sites or pages that have violated Google’s webmaster guidelines, sites that are impacted by search engine core updates haven’t done anything wrong. “Instead, the changes are about improving how our systems assess content overall. These changes may cause some pages that were previously under-rewarded to do better,” according to Google’s statement. The last search engine core update occurred in November 2021.

What publishers can do

According to Google, while the announcement was made on May 25^th, it will take about one to two weeks to fully roll out. If you are a publisher or webmaster, you should be monitoring your site performance in Google Analytics and Google Search Console. As Google mentioned, any changes in your rankings wouldn’t be a penalty but Google’s way of optimizing search results to better match search queries. If your web pages experience a loss in rankings in the next few weeks, you should analyze the search engine results page (SERP) to understand the new intent of the page. Compare the content covered in pages that rank, what questions do they answer or topics do they cover? Then update your page to meet the new intent. Google has also provided a list of things to consider if your site is impacted negatively by a search engine core update.

Summary

Google announced a core update on May 25^th. Whenever Google updates its algorithms, it means that some sites will do better, and some will do worse. Knowing about updates can help you explain any losses or changes in traffic. Keep your eye on your website analytics to learn how your site has been impacted if at all. If certain pages have been impacted by the update, you can analyze the SERP to identify ways to improve your content and regain rankings and traffic.

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