Google SEO

Google Algorithm Updates

Google June 2019 Search engine update

Google “unconfirmed” the search engine update in April that was reported in May by our company and many others.

However Google officially announced the June update and it’s here.  As of June 6th we are already seeing some of our sites moving up & down as a result of this core search engine update.

The Trail Of Tears

For many sites, including some of our customers SEO and websites we manage, an immediate drop in rankings was seen after the core update started on June 4th.  Google’s reaction to this was the norm as they stated that any drops are not a result of penalties but could indicate that other sites are seen as more relevant…

Of course relevance was not defined by Google so it leaves SEO companies such as ourselves to create criteria based on carbon dated fossils and mathematical equations on the gravitational effect on a nearby site getting sucked into Google’s black hole.  Here’s our take of “relevance:”

  • Content in website must be more specific to the target keywords for ranking.  For example “construction service” should included different construction services available on the same page intended to rank.  Also you would be better off avoiding unusual or exotic construction service options and zero in on the most common so Google doesn’t get confused and drop you since it has a limited understanding of “relevance.”
  • Relevance will not be improved with repeated – stuffed – keywords.  Avoid this.
  • Tread very carefully when writing your content.  Ask yourself, just as Hemingway did: “Can a 5th grader understand it?”

It appears that our websites that offer simpler more generic descriptions of what services/products a company offers are seeing a boost in rankings.  The sites with less common – but more competitive – options are getting dropped in rankings so far.  This is disappointing but if this trend changes after all the dust clears in a couple weeks I’ll update this blog but for right now it appears that if Google cannot relate all your content to the keywords you are going after (even if it does relate) then you are going down in rankings.  WTF Google?

A Word Of CAUTION

If you are seeing a rankings drop and you believe Google may be “misunderstanding” your contents relevance don’t re-do your website content yet.  To see how it will ultimately affect you takes about two weeks and you might as well wait four weeks in case Google releases an update fixing their latest cluster $#*@ before rushing into re-writing content.

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