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Google's Just Not That Into You: Understanding Core Updates & Search Intent
- 1. Google’s Just Not ThatInto You Understanding Core Updates & Search Intent
- 2. I talk alot about core updates…
- 3.
- 4. “Don’t chase thealgorithms” SEOs be like:
- 5. CONTENT So why doI care?
- 6.
- 7. on April 23,2012 Me sleeping peacefully Our company ranks #2 for our target keyword
- 8. Followed all the bestpractices from Moz Beginner Guide & Whiteboard Fridays Our 2012 SEO Strategy (my confession)
- 9. …but also, bought shadylinks… and it worked. At this time, it was conventional SEO wisdom. Our 2012 SEO Strategy (my confession)
- 10. April 24, 2012:The Penguin Update Destroyed all our rankings Set company into a panic I attempted to disavow thousands of links …I ended up resigning
- 11. Moved to the agencyworld Never Again
- 12. Fast forward tothis agency client in 2017 An SEO opportunity that seemed to good to be true
- 13. I’ve got abad feeling about this
- 14. …it was toogood to be true. 2018 “Medic” core update Medic#2 Anothercoreupdate Another core update
- 15. “Recovery” took 3+years … and required a brand new website Tonsofhardwork Future core updates
- 16. It’s not justa few sites affected by core updates…
- 17. Core updates wreak havocon businesses
- 18. Before The Timespresented evidence of the paid links to JCPenney.com, Google had just begun to roll out an algorithm change that had a negative effect on Penney’s search results. - 2011 NYTimes article about JC Penney
- 19. We are experiencingsome slowing of our overall revenue growth which we believe is due in part to changes that Google made in its natural search engine algorithms, to which we are responding. - overstock.com earnings report in 2015
- 20.
- 21. 16,000+ search quality evaluators provideGoogle feedback throughout the year
- 22. our MC, Cyrus, becamea quality rater this year! Sidenote…
- 23. Raters determine: ✴Needs met (usefulness) ✴Pagequality (E-E-A-T)
- 24. Raters provide feedback toGoogle, but they do not directly influence Google’s algorithms. Many other ranking systems are also at play.
- 25. Google announces core updatesevery few months, and adds them to their list of ranking updates
- 26. Google’s Official List ofUpdates
- 27. Ranking signals & weightsare added, removed, and/or modified
- 28. How Google WantsYou To Think About It Movie Movie Movie Movie Movie Movie in 2017 in 2023 Best movies
- 29. T h er e ' s n o t h i n g wrong with pages that may not be performing as well as they were before a core update. -
- 30. In fact, there'snothing in a core update that targets specific pages or sites. Instead, the changes are about improving how our systems assess content overall. -
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- 33. 1. Site qualityissues catch up to you
- 34. ✴ Aggressive advertising that affectsusability & performance ✴ Significant thin or duplicate content ✴ Excessive low-quality local landing pages (doorway pages) ✴ Significant low-quality content lacking E-E-A-T ✴ Deceptive affiliate links ✴ Being too “salesy” with Your Money, Your Life information Examples of Systemic, Site-wide Quality Issues
- 35. We told themit was a bad idea May 2020 Core Update Client builT thousands of “fake” local landing pages A cautionary tale from a former client
- 36. (…and wait fornext core update, or the one after) Prioritize fixing these issues Core Update Recovery Plan
- 37. 2. Changes in userbehavior
- 38. February 2022: 6.550 6.550 August2022: 21. 900 21.900 Search volume KEYWORD: “PLAYGROUND”
- 39. Plus, an adulttoy store with the name “Playground” launched in May 2022 Mid-2022: Multiple “Playground” AI Tools Released
- 40. in Early 2022 SERPFOR “PLAYGROUND”
- 41. in April 2023 SERPFOR “PLAYGROUND” #1 Ranking: Adult toy store #2 Ranking: Playground AI company
- 42. Why aren’t we ranking #1for “playground” anymore? If Your Client Sells Playgrounds Online:
- 43. Generic SEO Responses “Weshould build more links to this page” “We should change our title tag and meta description” “The #1 ranking site has a better Domain Authority than us”
- 44. Better, Data-Driven SEOResponses: “There is a temporary surge in demand due to recent press around two new companies called ‘Playground.’ It may subside over time.”
- 45. Better, Data-Driven SEOResponses: “‘Playground’ is not our top- converting keyword. We should analyze PPC data to identify the highest converting related terms to focus on.”
- 46. Better, Data-Driven SEOResponses: “We should shift our focus to Google Shopping & Images, where we see most conversions for this keyword”
- 47.
- 48. DURING THE STARTOF COVID QUERY: MASKS ✴ Costume masks stopped ranking on page 1 ✴ The CDC, WHO, and FDA now appear on page 1 (+ position 1) ✴ Wikipedia disappeared
- 49. DURING THE STARTOF COVID QUERY: FLOUR ✴ A bakery franchise lost top positions ✴ A site offering sourdough recipes now ranks No.1 ✴ Shift toward ecommerce for sites that have flour in stock (Amazon & Target)
- 50.
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- 53. July 2018 May2021 KEYWORD: HYDROGEN PEROXIDE
- 54. July 2018 May2021 KEYWORD: NATURAL COUGH REMEDIES
- 55. ✴ Medical product reviews& weight loss supplements ✴ Fake authors, no real E-E-A-T ✴ Pushed products in medical content with affiliate links and discount codes Other sites impacted by the “Medic” core update:
- 56. The rise ofmedical authorities during the pandemic
- 57. 5. Relevancy Shifts& QDF (Query Deserves Freshness)
- 58. What Google thoughtthis meant, before the July 2021 core update: ✴ a video game ✴ a hardware company STEEL DRAGON
- 59. What Google thoughtthis meant, after the July core update: STEEL DRAGON ✴ a rock band ✴ a roller coaster
- 60.
- 61.
- 62.
- 63. SEOs always talkabout “THE 3 SEARCH INTENTS” 1. Transactional 2. Navigational 3. Informational
- 64. There are waymore than 3 intents in SEO. Let’s be real.
- 65. More accurate listof actual search intents ✴ Buying a product ✴ Looking for pictures ✴ Reading product reviews ✴ Finding local businesses & activities ✴ Seeing recent news ✴ Fact checking ✴ Defining the word or phase ✴ Tutorials & troubleshooting ✴ Finding stock photos ✴ Recipes ✴ Medical symptoms ✴ Finding government resources ✴ Seeing pictures ✴ Booking a trip ✴ Watching a video ✴ Hearing a song ✴ Translating a phrase ✴ Spell check ✴ How to ✴ Lyrics ✴ Adult videos/images ✴ Researching reputation
- 66. Don’t forget abouthomonyms Break Roll
- 67. User behavior cantip the scales & cause intent shifts
- 68. Intent shifts are frequentduring core updates
- 69. Google may determinethat a keyword requires a new “intent” & adjust rankings during core updates
- 70. ✴ Zoom movedinto position 2. ✴ Pages listing physical rooms were replaced by informational content. ✴ Wikipedia disappeared. QUERY: “CONFERENCE ROOM” Intent shifts at the start of COVID-19
- 71. Year-Over-Year Rankings forJUKEBOX
- 72. Shopping News Product reviews Article tagpage Wikipedia definition Shopping Video Product reviews Recent article Wikipedia definition
- 73. What Google thoughtthis meant, before the July 2021 core update: ✴ a correctional facility CORRECTIONAL
- 74. What Google thoughtthis meant, after the July 2021 core update: CORRECTIONAL ✴ a keyword that should return a dictionary definition
- 75. Dictionary sites OFTEN FEELTHE BIGGEST IMPACTS DURING core updates Dictionary Intent: Defining words DICTIONARY SITE
- 76. Responding to CoreUpdate Changes & Intent Shifts
- 77. Leveraging “Before & After” Featuresin SEO Tools rank tracking with screenshots, tools that show how URLs changed by position
- 78. Identifying What Changed intent switch? newtype of page or website? different serp features?
- 79. Conducting side-by-side competitive analyses toensure your page matches the right intent AI tools can support with this
- 80.
- 82. Creating content that covers*all the intents* This may require different site sections
- 83. Example: Tag Page vs ArticlePage Article page: Top 10 Superman movies Tag Page: (Superman articles, resources, bio, pictures) KEYWORD: SUPERMAN
- 84. Be everywhere search enginescan find you.
- 85.
- 86. Moving beyond textAudio
- 87. Moving beyond textReels
- 88. Moving beyond textPodcasts
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- 92.
- 93. Moving beyond text GooglePerspectives
- 94. Moving beyond text Optimizingfor Google’s SGE and Bing Chat
- 95.
- 96. If your siteis affected by a core update, you might have to wait until the next update rolls out, or the one after that, to see a change in performance.
- 97. Remember that intentshifts can be inevitable and it’s not always easy - or even possible - to use SEO to counteract what Google chooses to rank.
- 98. Optimize all thethings! Provide content that meets all possible intents to cover as much ground as possible.
- 99.