Just Your Regular Core Update?
Amidst the uproar from the web community that the update must be something ‘big’, given Google’s unusual pre-announcement of the update, the search engine’s public search liaison regarded it as the usual type of core update that they regularly do. He further explained in a tweet that they simply wanted to be proactive about this kind of information. Similar to the March 2019 Core Update, Google underscored that this Core Algorithm Update didn’t target any particular website categories. Given its ‘broad’ nature, Google’s Danny Sullivan pointed out that this update did not aim to ‘fix’ anything in specific. Although they’ve confirmed that the changes brought about by the update were ‘noticeable’, Google insisted that it didn’t aim to mandate website owners to mistakenly try to alter things and tag any changes as ‘quality issues.’
An Update Within an Update
Overlapping the June Algo Core Update was the Diversity Change Update which rolled out on June 6. It was designed to ensure that no more than two listings from the same site would come up in the search top results. Google pointed out that the release of the Diversity Change Update is separate and unconnected from the June 2019 Core Update. Furthermore, webmasters believed that sites who experienced a drop in traffic are more likely due to the core update rather than the diversity update.
June 2019 Core Update is Not Google Panda
In Feb 2011, Google launched the Panda algorithm update to reward high-quality websites and drop those low-quality ones in the SERPs. Initially, it was rolled out separately from the core algorithm but was then eventually integrated into it in March 2012. Contrary to initial contentions that the June Core Update was somehow linked to this Google Panda Algorithm, Google’s Danny Sullivan highlighted that it’s certainly not. Rather, the update was generally designed and improved to better reward good content.
Contrary to Danny Sullivan’s claim that the update is just a regular core update, Google penalty expert and algorithm analyst, Marie Haynes tagged the June 2019 Core Update as a big one. In her analysis, Haynes identified the following types of sites as most affected by the Core Update, some showed signs of massive recoveries while others are being hit again.
Webmasters argued that the news site’s major downfall can be attributed to their undeniably “Low Main Content”, which means that the page has an unsatisfying amount of main content that matches the purpose of the page. This is made apparent with the excessive amount of cheap and inappropriate adult photos on the site’s main content pages. In her analysis, algorithm analyst, Marie Haynes further pointed out that the news site is known to be producing content that is both sensational and untrustworthy. On top of this, ads and even auto-playing videos obstruct a page’s actual content.
While Panda targets spam sites and Penguin deals with bad linking and keyword stuffing, Google Core Algorithm Updates tend to impact websites in a wide range of areas. In the context of the June 2019 Core Update, it’s quite apparent that Google suggests site owners to focus on ensuring the delivery of better content to reap rewards. Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst, John Mueller emphasized that the factors impacting website rankings are external in nature. He advised that Google remains steadfast in responding to the evolving needs of users by ensuring the accessibility of quality content. Thus, to help produce great content, Google suggests the use of the Search Quality Rater’s Guidelines, as an excellent starting point in ensuring that your website is relevant, useful and trustworthy to users. To understand how raters learn to assess good content, here are key points that you should consider:
For example, if you run a medical website, content should be produced by people or organization with appropriate medical expertise or accreditation. It should also be regularly updated, reviewed and edited in a professional style.
For journalistic sites, content should be factual, backed up with accurate data and ultimately, published in a manner that will aid a user’s better and holistic understanding of current events.