Google Has Released a Spam Algorithm Update

Google has just released a spam algorithm update. The spam update concluded on Tuesday, June 30. A second one will follow next week. We'll add to this tweet thread when that happens.

We encourage sites to follow our best practices for Search: https://t.co/jK3ArQEuir

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) June 23, 2021

Google’s Danny Sullivan added that the update is global and currently covers web page and image results.

 

How to optimize your website without spamming

If you want to get high rankings on Google and other search engines, avoid spam techniques at all costs. Spam will get your website penalized sooner or later.

Use white-hat SEO methods if you want to get lasting results. They have several advantages:

  • Search engines: They win as they are provided with pages that are easy to understand and that contain the quality information that their visitors search for.
  • Searchers: They win as they are getting what they ask for from the search engines.
  • Web site owners: They win as they are getting quality visitors who are interested in what their website has to offer.

With white-hat SEO methods, your rankings will grow steadily and you’ll get a much better performance in the long run. This leads to lasting high rankings on Google and other search engines.

 

Previous News

SEO and Google News Update - May 2021

SEO and Google News Update - April 2021

SEO and Google News Update - March 2021

SEO and Google News Update - February 2021

SEO and Google News Update - January 2021

SEO and Google News Update - December 2020

 

Google Says Quality is a Site-wide Ranking Signal

In a video on YouTube, Google’s John Mueller said that Google needs to understand the overall website. Google ranks single web pages but they also consider the quality of the website.

“We would probably see a mix. So on the one hand we do index things page by page, we rank things page by page but there’s some signals that we can’t reliably collect on a per page basis where we do need to have a bit of a better understanding of the overall site. And quality kind of falls into that category.

So in a case where you’re significantly improving the quality of one page of a website then that does help that one page to improve a bit in ranking but kind of the overall effect of the whole website’s quality that’s something that takes a bit of time and where we really have to see that okay overall all of these things have changed. So kind of like more than just that one page. And then we can kind of see that website as a whole as being a little bit better with regards to quality.”

 

Previous News

SEO and Google News Update - May 2021

SEO and Google News Update - April 2021

SEO and Google News Update - March 2021

SEO and Google News Update - February 2021

SEO and Google News Update - January 2021

SEO and Google News Update - December 2020

 

Google: you should check 5xx errors on your website

Google’s John Mueller said on Twitter that you should check the 5xx errors on your website. Most website audit tools can help you to find 5xx errors on your website quickly and easily.

5xx errors are based on what your server returned at the time. Maybe there were temporary issues, if you don't see them now. I'd try to find out more from your host, to make sure it's not a regular occurrence.
(Also, those URLs are a bit excessive – there's no SEO value in that)

— ?? John ?? (@JohnMu) May 28, 2021

How to find 5xx errors on your website

Regular technical audits of your website are important. Servers can have problems, links can change, and there can be many other things that can have a negative impact on the search engine rankings of your website. Finding 5xx errors (and other errors) is very easy with website audit tools.

 

Previous News

SEO and Google News Update - May 2021

SEO and Google News Update - April 2021

SEO and Google News Update - March 2021

SEO and Google News Update - February 2021

SEO and Google News Update - January 2021

SEO and Google News Update - December 2020

 

Two Google core updates (one in June, another in July)

Google has announced two core updates for this summer. As not all planned improvements for the June 2021 update are quite ready, there will be another core update in July.

 

What you should know about the core update

The June 2021 Core Update is rolling out since June, 2nd. As is typical with these updates, it will typically take about one to two weeks to fully roll out.

The June 2021 Core update will be followed by the July 2021 Core update. Some of Google’s planned improvements for the June 2021 update aren’t quite ready, so we’re moving ahead with the parts that are, then we will follow with the rest with the July 2021 update.

Most sites won’t notice either of these updates, as is typical with any core updates. Of course, any core update can produce drops or gains for some content. Because of the two-part nature of this release, it’s possible a very small slice of content might see changes in June that reverse in July.

Nothing in a core update is site-specific.


What you should do now

Google’s advice for core updates remains the same. Core updates do not penalize websites. For example, cleaning your links won’t help if your rankings drop after a core update. Instead, it’s likely that other websites do something better than your website.

If you want to get high rankings with Google’s new ranking algorithm, just do the usual things that are needed to get high rankings:

1. Create web pages with good content

Your website should contain many pages that are related to the topic of your website. If the content of your website is unique, it will be much easier to get high rankings on Google (and other search engines).

Optimize the pages of your website for your keywords and make sure that your web pages are error-free.

2. Get good links from other websites

If your web pages have good links from related websites, they will rank higher than other pages that do not have these links. Analyze the links that point to your site and improve the links that point to your web pages.

If there are unnatural links to your web pages, you should remove these bad links.

3. Make sure that your website is mobile-ready

Most people visit websites on smartphones. For that reason, it is very important that your website works with mobile phones.

4. Use structured data markup code

Although structured data markup code is not necessary to get high rankings, rich results help to improve the look of your website on Google’s search results pages.

 

Previous News

SEO and Google News Update - May 2021

SEO and Google News Update - April 2021

SEO and Google News Update - March 2021

SEO and Google News Update - February 2021

SEO and Google News Update - January 2021

SEO and Google News Update - December 2020

 

Google says you don’t need a high score in all three Core Web Vitals for a ranking boost

In a web vitals Q&A on YouTube, Google’s Philip Walton and John Mueller explained that you do not need a high score in all three Core Web Vitals (CWV) to get a ranking boost. The Page Experience ranking factor is not binary.

 

What are Core Web Vitals?

Since May 2021, Google uses the new Page Experience algorithm. That algorithm tries to understand how website visitors perceive a web page: how quickly it loads, how well the page is displayed on mobile phones, how ads are shown on the page, etc.

The new Page Experience algorithm uses existing Google ranking factors. For example, the page speed update, the mobile-friendly update, the interstitials update and the HTTPS update are part of the new algorithm. Google is going to refine the metrics that deal with usability and speed.

The three core web vitals are loading, interactivity, and visual stability. These are represented by the values First Contentful Paint, First Input Delay, and Cumulative Layout Shift.

 

It’s not necessary to get a “good” value in all CWV

Google’s Philip Walton from Google said that CWV isn’t fully a binary thing. Google’s John Mueller said that it is enough to reach a threshold:

“Once you have reached that good threshold, then that for us is like a pretty high bar, and you are at that stable point. And at that point, like, micro optimizing things like extra milliseconds here and there, that’s not going to do your site in ranking anything specific.

It might have an effect on what users see and with that you might have other positive effects, but at least when it comes to search ranking, that’s not going to be something where you are going to see improvement. If you are like five milliseconds faster than the next one.”

 

What do you have to do now?

To get a ranking boost from the Page Experience ranking algorithm algorithm, you don’t have to reach a “good” score for all three metrics. It also won’t help to further improve your pages after reaching the “good” score.



Thursday, July 1, 2021





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