What is a Core Update and How It Effects Your Website?
Transcript from the video:
This is Your Marketing Minute from Forward Push, a video and audio podcast that is here to help small business owners understand what is happening today, tomorrow and in the future on what they can do with their marketing.
Well, Google just released a new algorithm core update. So this is the second core update of the year, these typically come out every three months, so we’re pretty much right on schedule. We had one back in January that did a few things to how your website’s ranks and as we know these core algorithm updates, take a few weeks to show.
You might be asking yourself what is a core update?
Well, think of it this way. If you had a list of your favorite songs from 2015 and now it’s 2020 that list is a little outdated. You might go back to your list and say, song that I had a #1 in 2015. Well, now it’s #3 and that song that I had a #5, well, that’s my jam and now it’s #1. refreshed your list of your top songs of 2015. That’s what Google does when it releases a core update. It refreshes the search results. That’s what a core update is.
It’s nothing that you can really do on your website to make sure that your site does better or does worse. It’s all about creating great quality content. So while this update came out yesterday, you can expect to not really see too much action with your website.
But what happens if it does happen? And all of a sudden you see less traffic to your website, pages are starting to not appear in the search results? What can you do? Well, Google tells you, there’s nothing you can do, and that’s absolutely true. On the other hand, what Google says is, it’s time to take a hard look at the content you’re producing on your website.
And in the Google’s Web Master blog, they gave a list of about 20 some odd questions that you can ask yourself or even better, ask someone you know, to read your blogs and then go back to these questions and provide you truthful answers.
Today I wanted to share with you my 3 favorite questions from the list, and here they are one. Does the content provide original information, reporting, research or analysis? That’s a question that Google wants you to ask yourself about your website.
My second favorite question that Google says any business that has a blog or content on their website should be asking themselves is if you research the site producing the content, would you come away with an impression that it is well trusted, widely recognized as an authority on its topic and the last of my 3 favorite things that Google asks that you ask yourself when it comes to your blog and your website is, does the content provides substantial value when compared to other pages in the search results?
So there you go. We’ve had the May 2020 Google algorithm core update – just happen – over the next few weeks you can look to see if your website has been impacted and recapping here – It doesn’t matter if your site was effected or not, there isn’t anything that you can really do. It doesn’t mean that your site has failed a Google test, it just means it’s time to start concentrating more on your content.
This has been Your Marketing Minute from Forward Push. Thanks for listening and I’ll see you again soon.
