We all know that Google is the number one search engine in the world, and any SEO efforts that a company does is to rank higher on Google’s search results. Google’s algorithm decides which website is to be ranked high and which is to be ranked low. There are a lot of things that affect your website rankings; the content, domain and page authority, keywords, security, etc.
Google updates its algorithm regularly, which causes rank fluctuations in the search results. So, if you want your website to top the rankings and stay there. You need to stay aware of all the changes and updates Google rolls out. Google makes minor changes almost every day; these mostly do not affect the ranking system.
In this article, we will discuss the last two major algorithm updates that do affect the ranks. So, whether you manage your website’s digital marketing yourself or you hire a digital marketing expert to manage it for you. You should be aware of these changes.
Bert (Google Algorithm Update- 25th Oct)
Google started to roll out this update on 25th Oct 2019. The Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers update, better known as “BERT” will affect almost 10% of all search results. It is said to be the most significant advancement in search engines in the last five years. This algorithm was born from an open-sourced project, aimed at helping Google better interpret natural language searches and understand the context.
It makes Google better at understanding what the end-user is searching for. When the end-user searches for something on Google, BERT analyzes the whole phrase to find the best result, even if the words the end-user uses has more than one meaning. Instead of just focusing on the words, BERT focuses on the entire phrase.
It directly affects how your SEO or digital marketing expert handles the language on your website. Instead of just focusing on keywords, they can focus on producing good content that directly relates to the products or services you offer.
There were not a lot of fluctuations in the ranks with the rollout of BERT; this means most SEO experts around the world were already following its standards of content.
September 2019 Core Update (Google Algorithm Update- 25th Sep)
On September 25th, 2019, Google rolled out an algorithm update known as “September 2019 Core Update”. This algorithm also seemed to affect websites that were affected in the previous core updates. This update was focused on the overall quality of a website’s content. Google did not give a lot of details about this algorithm update, but they did advise on what you can do if the roll-out negatively affects your website.
Google have said just like they have said before; you need to focus on the content you offer to the end-user. The quality of the content has to be of a high standard. If your website has been affected negatively, ask yourself the below questions, and find answers to them.
Questions:
- Is the content on your website original, does is provide any kind or reporting or research analysis?
- Does the content on your website provide substantial and interesting information, beyond the obvious?
- Is the content plagiarized from another website?
- Does the title of the page indicate the summary of the page?
- Is the title true to the nature of the content?
- Is the content on your website trustworthy, does it clearly state the source and expertise behind the content?
- Is the content free of easily checked errors?
- Is the website an authority on the topic of the content?
- Does the content feel like an expert wrote it, or does it feel rushed?
- Does the content have grammatical or spelling errors?
- Is the content mobile-friendly?
- Is the content serving the genuine interests of the end-user?
- Is the content aimed at robots or people?
The content on your website must be original, plagiarism-free. It should provide value to the end-user. The title of an article/page should indicate what the content is. There should no misleading or irrelevant titles or headings.
The content should be trustworthy, mention the source or expertise behind the content whenever possible. The content should not have any easily checked errors. The website’s authority on the topic of the content should be good.
The content should not have any grammatical or spelling errors. The website and content should be mobile-friendly; in other words, it should look good on a mobile app. The content should be aimed at users and serve their interests instead of being created solely for ranking purposes.
Conclusion
Google would keep rolling out new algorithm updates all the time. The only way to stay ahead is by creating good content, targeted at the user instead of robots. There are a lot of things that define your website’s rank. However, do remember Content Is King.
Whether you are a content writer or a software developer, if you are looking to improve your website’s rank on Google, what you need to do is; hire a digital marketing expert. An elite digital marketing expert will be able to implement the best practices when it some to the search engine optimization of your website.
