Yousuf Rafi
Whenever there is a core algorithm update, and you feel that there is a dip or a rise in the ranking of your website, there are two reasons for that. First, either something changed on your website, or the second possibility is that Google has changed the criteria to determine the quality of the website.
If you have read the Quality Raters Guideline, you will notice that “Pages with ads or supplemental content that distract the user from the main content should be given a low rating.” Also, that is precisely what Google has done with its September Core Algorithm Update.
If you have been negatively affected by any of the recent Google updates, I urge you to see the ad experience that your website is creating for the user.
Let’s dig deep into what happened in Google’s September 2019 Core update.
According to RankRanger, the core 2019 update affected mostly health, travel, and finance niches.
We have seen the volatility of increases from positions 1 – 3 in the health and travel sector while other niches observed a rise in the ranking.
If we compare the June Core update with the September update, we can see a significant difference.
SEMRush on their SEMrush Sensor mentioned that the average level of volatility of the September 25, 2019 core update is 4.7
In some categories like News and Sports, the volatility was high throughout the day. However, the company didn’t confirm any set pattern of winners and losers with the update.
Other than the News, Sports, and Art/Entertainment section nothing was as affected by the September 2019 Core update.
If we look further into the community – a vote done by Barry Schwartz revealed that more than 52% of the websites are still unaffected by the update.
Some of the users confirmed that the 2019 Core Update by Google affected the news and health sector pretty badly.
However, some users are furious with these updates:
fb3003 said:
“I don’t even try to make any sense from these changes because it’s beyond any logic. I have websites for specific niches, which were ranking well for these niches. Now they are on page 2 or 3, and the first page is full of spam. Keyword stuffed authority pages, yt videos, etc. it is ridiculous. In my opinion the search engine is broken now. I can only hope the results will go back to normal.”
Nakamura said:
“My rank went down 2nd to 16th. Nothing blackhat had enough great content. As it’s not wp I can’t anything about kw stuffing on my page. However, page gave what users expected. I tried everything I can and optimized every small thing last days to come back to at least 1st page. But not even moves a single rank. Spam pages came up and staying on ranks. I can agree with you. G came stupid or whatever.”
One user revealed that aged websites with many quality links are real winners while others are still confused about when will this updated end. As far as a digital agency USA or a professional SEO agency USA is concerned, the fluctuation is not that much. If there are just a few positions here and they will bounce back to their usual place within a few days.
Marie Haynes, in her podcast, revealed that one of the primary reasons that people are experiencing a drop in their ranking is due to the missing contact information and address on the website. Yes. This is true. Although the theory is not tested, we’ve seen that those small brands that haven’t mentioned their address or phone number on their website experienced a drop in their ranking.
In the update, Google announced a glandular update on its snippets. Previously, when you search for something, Wikipedia results would show up whether the information is correct or not. Well, now the problem has been taken care of. Now, Google Snippet will only show those sections in an article that match the query of the user.
Furthermore, if you don’t belong to the travel, health or entertainment industry, but your rank dropped, it means you did something that made Google unhappy. The way to go in the good books of Google you must do the following things:
- Always use original content in your content. Not just any content this content should provide real value to the user.
- Check and remove the broken links that your website has.
- If the headline of each page clearly defines the content of the page, kindly do so.
- Is the content on the page designed for voice search?
- Avoid excessive ads on your website.
- Is the website mobile responsive?
- Avoid fluffy words to impress the readers. If the audience doesn’t get what they are looking for, they will leave the page and move on.
These are some of the things that you can do to get back your ranking on Google. Since the September 2019 Core Update is still on the go, it is best not to freak out and wait for a month before you send an email to Google.
Ashad Rehman
