SEO Algorithm Tag

Google’s September 2022 Core Algorithm Update

Google announced a Core Algorithm Update on September 12, 2022. The official Google list of announced updates stated that it will take up to two weeks to finish rolling out.

“Released the September 2022 core update. The rollout could take 2 weeks to complete.”

The initial response from the search community was generally positive although some affiliate marketing Facebook groups were noticeably muted.

Core Algorithm Update

A core algorithm update is announced by Google when changes are made that are large enough to be felt by publishers and search marketers.

The Official Google Search Central account tweeted the update announcement

A core algorithm update is a change to multiple parts of Google’s algorithm.

While the algorithm is always undergoing changes, a core algorithm update tends to be more noticeable.

Expect the changes to the algorithm to be seen within the next few days as the changes are rolled out to data centers.

There is no confirmation how this impacts the search results (SERPs) around the world and in different languages.

Presumably, this will affect search results across most languages since these kinds of updates are more general.

Will Core Update Amplify Helpful Content Update?

Danny Sullivan recently tweeted, in response to questions, that the effects of the helpful content update might become more observable during a core algorithm update.

He tweeted:

“Maybe the helpful content signal alone wasn’t enough to tip the scales and produce a change in someone’s particular situation, but when we do other updates (core, product reviews), it might add into that and be more significant….”

That seems like a general statement however and wouldn’t take that to mean that a core update WILL be more noticeable in a core update.

It’s important to note that Danny prefaced his statement with a “maybe.”

That said, the helpful content is a part of the core algorithm core and is continually running so that a new website can be affected by that algorithm component known as the Helpful Content Update (HCU).

Unless Google makes a specific statement that the Helpful Content Update is a major part of this core update, it may be premature to say that it is being amplified in this September Core update.

Despite some early predictions that the HCU was going to change everything, the search community has now regards it with a shrug.

Some have expressed the opinion that they are expecting the HCU to come back stronger with a core update.

Back on August 19th, someone expressed an opinion on the Facebook feed that was based on the past performance of other targeted updates.

The review updates and various spam updates did not shake up the industry. The impact was largely limited to the most obvious offenders.

Because the HCU was also targeted and the announcement called out specific bad examples, Everyone felt that the HCU would also not affect the average website.

Search Community Response to Core Update

The Search Community response was generally hopeful that it’ll make the search results better.

How to Respond to Core Update

But the response in some of the affiliate marketing spaces were muted, not much in the way of comments.

The best approach now is to be vigilant of any changes in search console but don’t react.

Search results may bounce around for the next few weeks.

Allow the search results to settle down before trying to make sense of it.

For more information and to gain better results via Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Hire SEO Expert from us as we give you a high-quality SEO Service by utilizing all the latest tools and advanced methodology. E-mail us any clock at – hello@hkinfosoft.com or Skype us: “hkinfosoft”.

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How to check if Google Analytics is working on your website

Google Analytics is a marketer’s lifeline in understanding performance and making decisions based on website or app usage data.

Typical issues stem from duplicate tag implementation, tag manager setup, cross-domain tracking and so much more.

Whether you are launching a new site, redesigning an old one, or merging multiple websites, here are the top four ways to check whether Google Analytics is working.

1. Check real-time tracking data

With Google Analytics’ real-time view, you can run tests on your site to determine how many people are on there this very second.

If you’re unsure of whether your Google Analytics code is working properly, go to GA’s main page.

Click on Realtime in the left navigation and browse through the location and content reports to test tracking on different sections of your site.

Given tracking, issues tend to happen when going to specific sub-domains or going across domains, use GA’s real-time reporting functionality to see if you can identify your individual user activity on site.

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2. Google Tag Manager

Tag managers allow marketers to manage the firing of all their tracking scripts from one place.

One of the biggest benefits of using a tag manager is that if your tag management code is placed on every page on your site, then you can easily insert tracking scripts without the need to constantly bring in IT or a developer.

Google Tag Manager is the most common solution and is a free tool for all webmasters.

Another issue that marketers often face happens when they are using a combination of a tag management system in addition to manually inserting scripts onto individual pages or sections on site.

This is common because tag management systems are often introduced after a site has been implementing tags manually for some period.

This creates redundancy in tracking scripts and requires a thorough audit to move everything to a single, organized tag management system.

If you are using Google Tag Manager, here are the steps to “preview” which scripts are firing on your site.

Step 1: Log in to Google Tag Manager and click on Preview.

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Step 2: Type in the page on the site you’d like to test.

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Step 3: See which tags are and are not firing on that specific URL.

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Within this “preview” mode, Google can also track scrolling and clicks.

So, if you are looking to use event tracking on button clicks, then this will allow you to see if clicks are triggering event tracking scripts on site.

3. Use Google Analytics Debugger Tool in Chrome

One common mistake marketers make is inadvertently deploying tracking code across the site multiple times.

It often happens during CMS (content management system) migrations, domain consolidations, or redesigns due to a lack of documentation of existing legacy analytics requirements.

The GTM/GA debug chrome browser tool allows us to quickly see the GA and GTM tags that fire on a page as we navigate from page to page.

Here is how you can use the GTM/GA debug tool to see if there is a duplicative tracking code.

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As you test this on your site, make sure that you are only seeing a single pageview from a single GA account that fires when you go to each page.

If you are seeing multiple pageviews fire when you load a single page, you’ll know that you are at least double-counting analytics data and likely throwing off all the other metrics you’re tracking in GA.

4. Check your tracking status in the Google Analytics Admin panel

What are the accounts, properties, and views that your Google Analytics needs to flow into?

What GA tracking tags need to be used on all pages? Do certain GA tags need to be used for certain parts of the site (i.e., blog, microsite, internal knowledge base section)?

How are the tags deployed across the site? Through manual insertion within global CMS modules or through a 3rd party tag manager?

What events (i.e., button clicks or form submissions) are tracked on site that need accurate tracking?

Going through this exercise allows us to identify the pages where the Google Analytics tracking code is firing vs. not being there at all.

Screaming Frog and other crawling tools allow us to identify these issues at scale.

Here are the steps to take in Screaming Frog to run this type of crawl to identify which pages of your site that Google Analytics tracking code may be missing from:

Step 1: Click on Configuration > Custom > Search.

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Step 2: Depending on if you are running Google Analytics tracking through tag manager or through direct script insertion, you’ll add in the unique identifier from the respective system (e.g. GTM-######, UA-#########-#, G-##########) here so that Screaming Frog will spider all sub-domains on-site to see where it is unable to find that identifier within the source code.

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Step 3: Put in your domain and click start.

This will crawl sub-domains on your site that are linked from your root URL.

If you do have micro-sites that are not linked from your main site, then Screaming Frog likely won’t crawl those pages.

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The outcome of this crawl will show you the percentage of pages on site that don’t have your tracking code on it.

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For more information and to gain better results via Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Hire SEO Expert from us as we give you a high-quality SEO Service by utilizing all the latest tools and advanced methodology. E-mail us any clock at – hello@hkinfosoft.com or Skype us: “hkinfosoft”.

To gain better results in the search engine, please visit our technology page.

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• searchenginejournal.com

How to recover from Google’s Broad Core Algorithm update

Key Insights on How to recover from Google’s Broad Core Algorithm update

1. Pages that lost traffic are not penalized
2. The core update is about pages ranking better if they’re more relevant (or losing ranking if less relevant)
3. Don’t have to wait until the next core update to recover
4. It’s not generally about spam

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How Long to recover from a Google Broad Core Algorithm update?

The person asking the question incorrectly mentioned “GoogleBot” making a decision as to when a site can recover from a core update. Googlebot is just a software program that downloads web pages, what’s known as a crawler.

It is Google’s algorithm back at the data centers that ranks all the downloaded web pages. It is those algorithms that are updated in a Core Algorithm Update.

Here is the question:

“Got hit by the June Core Update. We’re now working on quality content. How many months do I have to wait for a recovery? Can Googlebot decide to remove a penalty without any core update?”

Broad Core Algorithm updates are Not Penalties

“First of all, a core update is not a penalty. It’s not a matter of the Google algorithm saying this is a bad website.”

Losing rankings after a Core Algorithm Update can feel like being penalized. The effect is the same. But it’s not the same.

In a penalty Google sends the publisher a notice through Google’s Search Console about Webmaster Guideline violations.

There are no such notices when you lose rankings after a core algorithm update.

What John Mueller is communicating is that this is not about the publisher doing something bad, like violating Google’s publisher guidelines, for example a content or link spam issue.

Why sites lose rankings in Core Algorithm updates

The reason sites lose rankings is because Google’s new algorithm has decided that certain sites are more relevant.

“It’s essentially just saying, from the way that we determine which pages are relevant, we’ve kind of changed our calculations and found other pages that we think are more relevant.

So it’s not a matter of doing anything wrong and then you fix it (and then Google recognizes it and shows it properly).

…More it’s a matter of well we didn’t think these pages were as relevant as they originally were. And these kinds of changes they can happen over time.”

What are Google Broad Core updates?

Kinds of update Ranking Losses

During the course of conducting site reviews, there are at least two kinds of core algorithm update losses.

Search Ranking Position Losses

In the first scenario, some sites will gain positions, causing previously high ranked pages to lose those positions in the search results.

Complete Ranking Losses

The second scenario is when a site completely loses rankings. This is more serious and generally requires a deep look at the SERPs.

How Long to Wait to recover from Broad Core update

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Lastly, Google’s algorithm is constantly updating. That means you don’t have to wait until the next broad core algorithm update to see if improvements to your web pages have helped. You should see ranking improvements sooner.

But there are cases when rankings return after a subsequent algorithm update. That could be because some updates tend to be overly broad, affecting sites they didn’t intend to affect. So they might fine tune whatever change they made.

So if you see your rankings return after a core algorithm update, it’s likely that’s because they pulled back on some of the changes.

“With regards to kind of seeing changes in one core update and when would you see the next batch of changes if you make significant effort to improve your website for example, in general this is something that happens on an ongoing basis.

So on the one hand we have the core updates which are kind of bigger changes in our algorithm. And on the other hand we have lots of small things that keep changing over time.

The whole Internet changes over time and with that our search results are essentially changing from day to day and they can improve from day to day as well.

So if you’ve been making significant improvements on your website then you should see these kinds of subtle changes over time as well. So it’s not a matter of waiting for a specific change to see those changes in effect.”

Core Algorithm Ranking Losses are Not Always About Quality

Mueller ended his response by repeating that a rankings loss is not a sign that something bad happened to your site.

“But again, these core updates are not a sign that there’s anything bad on your website.”

Takeaways on recovering from a Google Broad Core update

There are some who view every broad core algorithm update as being about quality. When a site loses rankings, they point their finger and say it must be a low quality issue.

Others tend to see ranking issues as a matter of technical issues. Your site is slow, your redirects are chained and so on.

Quality and technical issues are legitimate concerns for ranking a site. Those issues must be addressed. But that’s not generally what these core algo updates are about.

When a site loses rankings after a core update, while technical and quality issues may exist, I prefer to keep an open mind and review everything to make sure that everything that could possibly contribute to a low ranking is addressed, especially relevance factors.

If your site lost rankings in a core algo update, you may find quality and technical issues that need improvement. But in my experience auditing websites that lost rankings, it may be useful to investigate the relevance factors.

For more information and to gain better results via Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Hire SEO Expert from us as we give you a high-quality SEO Service by utilizing all the latest tools and advanced methodology. E-mail us any clock at – hello@hkinfosoft.com or Skype us: “hkinfosoft”.

To gain better results in the search engine, please visit our technology page.

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• searchenginejournal.com

Google Broad Core Algorithm Updates

What is a broad core algorithm update? Learn the complete history of Google’s core updates, what they are, and what’s important for SEO.

On this date in 2018, for the first time, Google confirmed a type of update that eventually came to be known as a broad core algorithm update. Google told us that for any sites impacted by these updates that there was nothing specific to “fix”. Since 2018, Google has rolled out three of these updates every year.

So what exactly are Google core updates? How do they work? When did Google roll them out? Here’s everything you need to know about Google’s broad core algorithm updates.

What is a Google broad core algorithm update?

A broad core algorithm update is a change to Google’s “core,” or overall, search ranking algorithm and systems. Google’s core algorithm is actually a collection of algorithms that interpret signals from webpages (e.g., keywords, links, etc.), with the goal of ranking the content that best answers a search query.

For example, we know that in 2015, Google incorporated Panda in its core algorithm. On Sept. 23, 2016, Google announced that Penguin became part of its core algorithm. So that means Panda and Penguin are both parts of Google’s core algorithm.

So when Google announces a core algorithm update, it could be they are tweaking an aspect of Panda, Penguin, both, or both and more. As we all know, Google reveals as little as possible about its secret formula for ranking.

In addition to its core algorithm, Google’s Gary Illyes has said that Google uses “probably millions” of baby algorithms that look at various signals. While there has been some speculation about what exactly a “baby” or “tiny” algorithm is, all Illyes told us is that a baby algorithm could cause a spike in crawl rate and that they look for specific signals in pages and content.

For context, it’s also important to understand that core updates account for only three out of thousands of tweaks Google makes to its core algorithm every year.

In 2020, Google made 4,500 changes to search – which averages out to more than 12 per day. In 2018, that number was 3,200. Plus, Google ran more than 600,000 experiments in 2020. That’s a lot of changes and experiments, all of which can impact ranking, traffic, and SERP visibility. And this doesn’t take into account what your search competitors are doing or other variables like seasonality, news or events impacting search, and more.

Some broad core algorithm updates rolled out quickly, for others it took up to 14 days to fully roll out. When the impact is spread out, rather than happening exactly on the day an update is announced or confirmed, that adds some complexity into digging into the data.

All of these factors can make it difficult to isolate ranking drops to any one particular change Google rolls out. Many of Google’s changes to search don’t directly impact ranking so we just don’t notice or hear about all of those. But some updates absolutely do impact ranking.

What is the purpose of a broad core algorithm update?

Since the first confirmed broad core algorithm update, and multiple times in the following years, Google has stated that the top purpose of a core update is to improve its search results. Google announced via Twitter that the purpose was to benefit pages that were “previously under-rewarded.”

Like all Google algorithms, a broad core algorithm update is not a penalty. Think of it more like Google hitting a refresh button on the search results, based on a new set of “rules” for ranking. Your site may have gone up or down, or be in the same position in the SERPs after the update has finished rolling out.

How to recover from a broad core algorithm update

Broad core algorithm updates impacted the rankings of many websites, across industries. Though medical sites got a lot of attention, especially around the August 2018 Core Update (dubbed “Medic” by some in the SEO industry), Google’s broad core algorithm updates impacted more than health-related sites.

As with every Google algorithm update, there are winners and losers. For every website that goes up, one must go down. SEO is, and always will be, a zero-sum game.

Google’s advice, as is pretty typical for Google, is to build great content. While this message is frustrating to anyone and everyone involved with SEO looking for actual insights, Google has provided plenty of hints and guidance over the years about how to create high-quality websites and content. The key is to create consistently great content over time. If you do that, your rankings may improve.

In August 2019, Google provided additional recommendations in a blog post, What site owners should know about Google’s core updates. (It is essentially an updated version of the 23 questions Google published to provide guidance on the Panda update.) Google broke the 20 questions into four areas:

Content and quality questions

• Does the content provide original information, reporting, research or analysis?
• Does the content provide a substantial, complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
• Does the content provide insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
• If the content draws on other sources, does it avoid simply copying or rewriting those sources and instead provide substantial additional value and originality?
• Does the headline and/or page title provide a descriptive, helpful summary of the content?
• Does the headline and/or page title avoid being exaggerating or shocking in nature?
• Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
• Would you expect to see this content in or referenced by a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?

Expertise questions

• Does the content present information in a way that makes you want to trust it, such as clear sourcing, evidence of the expertise involved, background about the author or the site that publishes it, such as through links to an author page or a site’s About page?
• If you researched the site producing the content, would you come away with an impression that it is well-trusted or widely-recognized as an authority on its topic?
• Is this content written by an expert or enthusiast who demonstrably knows the topic well?
• Does the content have any easily-verified factual errors?
• Would you feel comfortable trusting this content for issues relating to your money or your life?

Presentation and production questions

• Does the content have any spelling or stylistic issues?
• Was the content produced well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
• Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?
• Does the content have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
• Does content display well for mobile devices when viewed on them?

Comparative questions

Does the content provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?

Does the content seem to be serving the genuine interests of visitors to the site or does it seem to exist solely by someone attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?

– Danny Sullivan, Google’s public liaison for search

Google also said that content impacted by a broad core algorithm update may not recover until the next core update is released. However, in my experience, it is possible to recover rankings by updating, rewriting, or otherwise improving your existing content.

In that same blog post, another thing they specifically discussed indirectly was the idea of content freshness:

"One way to think of how a core update operates is to imagine you made a list of the top 100 movies in 2015. A few years later in 2019, you refresh the list. It's going to naturally change. Some new and wonderful movies that never existed before will now be candidates for inclusion. You might also reassess some films and realize they deserved a higher place on the list than they had before.

The list will change, and films previously higher on the list that move down aren't bad. There are simply more deserving films that are coming before them."

– Danny Sullivan, Google's public liaison for search

I know that one thing I saw a lot of following Google’s broad core algorithm updates was varying degrees of loss in traffic and rankings to outdated content. The solution was pretty clear: update and republish that outdated content.

In short: publish helpful, useful and comprehensive content that meets user intent. And make sure to read Google’s quality rater guidelines, as they offer additional insights into how Google thinks about website and content quality.

A complete timeline of Google broad core algorithm updates

The first officially recognized (by Google) broad core algorithm update was March 9, 2018. This date was confirmed by Google’s Nathan Johns at SMX West, despite some confusion among industry algorithm history trackers.

However, even though we’ve been documenting broad core algorithm updates only since 2018, they were not technically new then. Google told us that they had done these types of updates “several times” per year at that point. In fact, in 2015, they confirmed a core ranking change. And the so-called Quality Updates also seem quite similar to what is now known as broad core algorithm updates.

Over the years, there have been several unconfirmed Google algorithm updates. Many of these seemed significant based on rank tracking tool data and what SEOs were seeing in their analytics, but Google never confirmed the various updates, mostly unnamed, though a few were given informal names by SEO practitioners (e.g., Fred).

Here is the complete timeline of confirmed Google broad core algorithm updates, and our coverage of them, up to the present day.

March 7, 2018: Broad Core Algorithm Update

• Google confirms core search ranking algorithm update

April 16, 2018: Broad Core Algorithm Update

• Google confirms rolling out a broad core search algorithm update earlier this week

Aug. 1, 2018: August 2018 Core Update (a.k.a., Medic)

• Google confirms broad search algorithm update is rolling out

March 12, 2019: March 2019 Core Update (a.k.a., Florida 2)

• No more confusion: Google gives core update a name, and a structure

June 2, 2019: June 2019 Core Update

• Google begins rolling out June 2019 core update
• Google advice on improving your site’s ranking for future core ranking update

Sept. 24, 2019: Broad Core Algorithm Update

• Google September 2019 core update to roll-out later today

Jan. 13, 2020: January 2020 Core Update

• Google January 2020 Core Update rolling out later today

May 4, 2020: May 2020 Core Update

• Google May 2020 Core Update rolling out

Dec. 3, 2020: December 2020 Core Update

• Google December 2020 Core Update rolling out

June 2, 2021: June 2021 Core Update

• Google June 2021 Core Update rolling out
• Google’s June 2021 core update was slow to roll out; here is what the data providers saw
• Google June 2021 core update finished rolling out June 12

July 1, 2021: July 2021 Core Update

• Google July 2021 core update rolling out now
• Google July 2021 core update is finished rolling out

Nov. 17, 2021: November 2021 Core Update

• Google November 2021 Core Update rolling out today
• SEO community feels blindsided by November core update as Google defends timing
• Google’s November 2021 core update hit fast and hard; here is what the data providers saw
• Google November 2021 core update is finished rolling out

For more information and to gain better results via Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Hire SEO Expert from us as we give you a high-quality SEO Service by utilizing all the latest tools and advanced methodology. E-mail us any clock at – hello@hkinfosoft.com or Skype us: “hkinfosoft”.

To gain better results in the search engine, please visit our technology page.

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• searchengineland.com