2017 has already been a big year for Google in regards to its algorithm updates. All the changes left businesses scrambling to keep up. The first big update Google’s staff jokingly called “Fred,” and the name stuck. This update came in March 2017, and saw some websites with 90% of their keywords dropping significantly in search ranking importance. You want your website to survive the next big update. Here are several things you can do.
Survival Tip One: Carefully Monitor Your Website’s Traffic Numbers
It goes without saying that it’s important to monitor your website’s organic traffic numbers on a consistent basis, but this is especially important to do when Google rolls out new algorithm updates. You can use Google Analytics to look at your recent history for any steep drops or spikes in traffic numbers. Check to see how they relate to any algorithm updates, and this will give you a starting point to fix potential issues with your site.
Survival Tip Two: Feature In-Depth vs. Thin Content
Although it may be impossible to go in-depth on every single post, you want the majority of them to be more content-heavy. If your site took a hit from Fred, you should check that your website’s content is well-written, that it goes in-depth on the particular topic, and that it completely answers any relevant questions.
Survival Tip Three: Reduce the Number of Ads
Google will penalise you if your site features an obnoxious amount of ads that negatively impact a viewer’s experience. You don’t have to get rid of them all, but there are a few you may want to roll back. Ads that sit in the middle of the page, deceptive ads designed to look like a download button, and auto-play video ads may cause Google to penalise your site.
Survival Tip Four: Get Rid of Harmful Links
High-quality backlinks can be an excellent marketing tool, but when you start having irrelevant page backlinks, spammy anchor text links, or link network links, you could be in trouble. Get rid of these links and focus on high-quality links. If you can’t remove them, use Google’s Disavow Tool and tell Google to ignore the low-quality or harmful links.
Focusing on these four algorithm update survival tips can increase the chances of your website coming through the next update with little or no significant problems or ranking drops.
