Basics on Google’s Latest Algorithm Update, Part 1

Early in August, Google confirmed through search liaison Danny Sullivan that a broad core algorithm update was taking place on August 1. Naturally, as with any big change Google makes in this area, search engine optimization pros around the world immediately began scrambling to identify what’s changed.

At SEO Werkz, this is just one part of our broad SEO services offered. Every time Google comes out with a new update, we get straight to work interpreting the changes and helping your online marketing strategies react properly. Here’s part one of this two-part blog, which will focus on the official statements Google has made on this matter and how to read between those lines as best we can.

Official Statement and What It Means

Google’s official statement, via a tweet, was as follows:

“This week we released a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year.”

They went on to state that their guidance for these updates is the same as it was in a March tweet announcing this future update – more on that in a bit. In essence, though, Google was attempting to communicate the following broad points to its users:

• The update, which is considered a major change to the algorithm, has indeed happened.
• The change was made to help improve how Google matches relevant results up with individual search queries.
• If your site lost rankings due to this update, this was not due to poor quality.

Further Detail

Naturally, as they tend to, Google’s announcement spurred numerous additional questions. While Sullivan did not give any specific guidance, he did send tweets and responses that gave a bit more information. Some of the basic areas to consider here:

• The update was broad, and not related to any single particular area to “fix.” Indeed, Google insists there is nothing to fix based on this new update.
• There is still no “rater score” and raters have no direct input into Google algorithms.
• Sustaining good rankings through big algorithm changes remains about having great content above all else.

Why the March Tweet?

As we noted, Google first announced this change back in March. Why do this? Well, they wanted to note a difference between daily improvements on specific areas and broad algorithm updates like this one. Daily updates are made all the time, but Google also releases a few broad updates each year that have a larger effect – and while a drop in rankings after such a broad update may seem to be penalizing your site, this isn’t actually usually the case. Rather, Google is simply rewarding pages that were not properly recognized under previous versions of the algorithm, which in turn may drop your rankings despite you doing nothing wrong at all.

In part two of this blog, we’ll go over what you can do to improve your pages based on this most recent update. To learn about this or any of our other search engine optimization or internet marketing solutions, speak to the pros at SEO Werkz today.