Google's Guide: What Webmasters Need to Know About Core Updates

Updates are available on Google every day to optimize search results. Webmasters do not get that directly at the moment. However, major updates have major updates. Although Google explains again and again that you can not adjust to this directly. However, the company now provides a clear guide that provides key information about the significant changes.

That should be known to webmasters, according to Google, via Core Updates

Changes in terms of your own search are Google's daily bread. In the past year alone, the search engine has made more than 3,200 changes. These updates range from the small make-up on the layout to the core algorithm updates.

As a result, Danny Sullivan of Google SearchLiaison confirmed that in the future it will probably always announce in advance , if core updates in the room. The company emphasizes to the most relevant search engine in the Western world that the advertising masters can not work out any immediate reactions to the updates. Rather, it's about the most important content for the searchers:

We understand those who do not care. We suggest focusing on ensuring you get the best content you can. That's what our algorithms seek to reward ....

More insights into what a Core Update can trigger and how webmasters are well-prepared in advance for their pages to grow well in the long run are now provided in a detailed blog post from the Google Webmaster Central blog . It also states that the core updates that run several times a year may affect Google Discover.

That's the goal of Core Updates

The big changes do not target specific pages. Rather, Google is about improving access to content over and over again. So it may be that content that was previously underrepresented, get a better ranking. As a result, other pages inevitably slip, but they did not do anything wrong - and therefore can not respond directly to the update. Google gives an example. A list of the top 100 films created in 2015 may look different in 2019 because new films have been added. In addition, old films could be re-analyzed and subsequently get a better placement.

As with the films, the content of the pages must be right, which is relevant for the users in the long term. As early as 2011, Google had provided some help to check its own content for quality features. Now the hints were overtaken. The following questions should put webmasters according to the relevant opinion of Google to their content to analyze its quality:

• Does the content contain original information, reports, research or analysis?
• Does the content contain a full, complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
• Does the content provide insightful analysis or interesting information that is not obvious?
• If the content is based on other sources, is it then avoided simply copying or rewriting those sources, and instead achieve significant added value and originality?
• Does the title and / or page title provide a descriptive and helpful summary of the content?
• Does it avoid the headline and / or page titles to be over the top or shocking?
• Is this the type of page you would like to bookmark, share with, or recommend to a friend?
• Would you expect this content to be seen or referenced in a printed journal, encyclopedia or book?

If all these questions can be answered with yes, your content already has good maps to get a good ranking on Google. Always provided that various levels are optimized, be it images, meta tags , structured data, etc. The set of questions is hereby not finished. Here are some questions about the expertise of your content:

• Does the content present information that you want to trust, such as: For example, provide clear citations, evidence of required expertise, background information about the author or site on which it is published, and links to the author or About Page?
• If you looked at the website on which the content was created, would you feel that it is a trusted or universally recognized authority on their subject?
• Is this content written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the subject well? Is the content free of factual errors that are easy to verify?
• Would you trust this content with questions about your money or your life?

More questions that good content should answer positively

In addition to such content-related aspects, the websites that want to receive a top ranking on Google must of course also be in good shape on the outside. Chic and pragmatic is the motto. These are Google's questions about your layout and the first impression:

• Is the content free of spelling or style issues?
• Was the content well produced or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
• Is mass-produced content being mass produced by or outsourced to a large number of developers, or distributed across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites are not given as much attention or care?
• Does the content contain an excessive amount of ads that distract or interfere with the main content?
• Is content on mobile devices displayed well when viewed on it?

If your content still makes a good impression after all these questions, it remains to be seen how they compare to the competition. Again, the search engine has two specific questions:

• Does content provide significant value compared to other pages in search results?
• Does the content seem to serve the real interests of visitors to the site, or does it just seem to exist because someone is trying to figure out what works well in search engines?

Anyone who experiences significant losses due to core updates regardless of their content quality should always consider an audit of the heavily affected sites. Additional information for determining good content is provided by Google's Quality Rater, which monitors whether the algorithm works. The Quality Rater Guidelines provide more information. These raters have no influence on rankings; they tend to give Google tips on local results. But who knows how these raters rate and rate good content may be based on refining their own content.

Keyword EAT

Three terms are central to good and SEO-relevant content: expertise, authoritative and trustworthiness, often abbreviated to EAT. Authors and SEO experts like Glenn Gabe or Lily Ray have already described how EAT can support their SEO.

Who polished up his content, but lost in the last Core Update but in the ranking, can usually only expect the next Core Update with an improvement. However, thanks to the very frequent minor updates in the search area, it is also possible to make up for faster places in the SERPs. Nevertheless, improvements do not guarantee any major changes in the rankings. In the long run, however, they pay off either way. For the user and at Google. Nevertheless,  Google's algorithm relies on signals and can not understand the contents as we humans do, despite all artificial intelligence. That's why every core update is tested by Google before it goes live, including a feedback loop. But:

Of course, no improvement we make to Search is perfect. This is why we keep updating. We take in more feedback, do more testing and improve our ranking systems.

Thus, the Google search can be made gradually better for the seekers. Anyone who contributes to this as a webmaster has a good chance of achieving a good ranking. It is important to pay attention to the pointers from Google; on the Google Webmasters account on Twitter. In the long term, all parties have something of relevant content; and he fights in the best case against the Core Updates.