There’s a New Algorithm in Town

Every few months Google likes to shake things up a bit with a new internal ranking method or system and it did it again last month with what it called a “broad core algorithm update”.

The company announced this update quietly and it went into effect on April 16 with no real details or information as to how it might affect rankings. Google did remind everyone on Twitter, however, that it’s constantly making slight adjustments to search algorithms.

Never mind all that; what about my SEO?

It’s been a month now and if you haven’t seen any change in your ranking – good or bad – then you probably won’t see anything now. Most companies won’t have noticed anything much, while a few may see some drops (or gains).

If you notice a drop, all you can do is improve your content and wait it out. Your site and its content aren’t being punished or penalised in any way, they’re being moved out of the way slightly for other sites and content that were actually “under-rewarded” by the older algorithms.

Google isn’t out to get you

The company’s updates aren’t designed to punish websites but to improve Google’s indexing and ability to put relevant information at the top of the search results.

What if I see a big drop in company rankings?

As long as you’ve been putting out good-quality content and adhering to good SEO practices then you shouldn’t see too much of a drop. If, however, you have seen a concerning dip then you need to work out what you need to change in order to recover.

If your SEO is dealt with by an agency or contractor then you should let them know what’s been going on since the algorithm change.

One thing you can do to help yourself is to look for the keywords your campaign uses and targets and then look at the search results above you to see what they’re doing to get there. By doing this you might be able to spot mistakes you’re making or changes you need to make (this does not mean using other sites’ content, however) in order to pull yourself back up.