1. Google Review Update
Review update of November
The update was out on November 8, 2023. It was designed to reward high-quality authentic review content on webpages focusing on review articles, blogs, FAQs, and other content providing analysis, recommendations, and opinions posted on Google authored by experts and enthusiasts, influencers.
Your content should be centered around three major things,
- To impart knowledge and showcase expertise
- Give evidence of data presented
- To showcase the advantages and disadvantages of a subject that is written and is being discussed.
The aim is to empower users by providing them with authentic information, and content that does not deceive customers and help them make the right decision.
Review update of April
Another review update was released on April 12, 2023, this google update focused on in-depth feedback, and reviews rather than peppery thin content that does not provide much insight. It included games, destinations, products, movies, and more reviews. It lasted 13 days. Ending on April 25, 2023.
Product review update of February
This update had a major impact on SERP volatility, which peaked very high on March 1, 2023
Google recommended;
- To provide proof of your experience with the product or service.
- To Include links to multiple sellers.
2. Broad Core Updates And Core Updates
What are core updates?
Core updates are nothing but Google’s way to reward the sites that follow their spam and algorithm ethically but still fail to rank on SERPs. On the other side, the update does not specifically target harm to the sites and pages that do not follow the rule book.
The changes that the core update brings about are to examine the overall content and rank the under-rewarded sites.
Why does Google release so many core updates?
- To reward pages that have failed to rank despite having great expertise and knowledge, great added value, and content that is helpful to the users.
- To prevent nonauthoritative and duplicate content from ranking on SERPs.
- To stop those who manipulate with mission and vision of Google to provide the most relevant information to its users. By dubious SEO practices.
Core updates try to surface authenticity, knowledge, and expertise that is trustworthy for Google and its users.
November broad core update
It was out on November 2, 2023, and completed by 28 of November. It was aimed to provide relevant and dependable searches to the customers and provide them with valuable information. This could positively affect your website traffic if your website content is authentic and is what search bots search for on your website.
For this update, google also mentioned that pages that already follow and focus on people-centered content and practices google best practices can do little. “Chances are, there’s nothing to do for most creators who have already been working to create helpful, reliable, people-first content,”
“We have different systems that are considered core to our ranking process; this month’s core update involves an improvement to a different core system than last month,” Google had said “However, our guidance about core updates is the same for both.”
October broad core updates
Rolled out on October 10, 2023, ended on 19 October, 2023
It is directed towards search algorithms and systems.
As in core updates, Google sends out the list of changes it implemented in Google search ranking updates.
It focuses on providing dependable and trustworthy searches to its customers.
To read more on the same you can read, Google Search’s Core Updates | Google Search Central | What’s new | Google for Developers
August core update
Started rolling out on August 22, and wound up on 7 September 2023. Aiming to improve search results.
This update had a heavy effect on search volatility compared to the March core update. Just after 3 days of rolling out the volatility spiked to 9.3 according to the Semrush sensor while the March update reached a volatility of 8. The update also had effects on the ranking of URLs, promoting the pages that did not serve its efforts.
Head of SEO at WIX and communication consultant at Semrush Mordy Oberstein said. “However, if you look at the increase in rank volatility as compared to the pre-update volatility then the March 2023 Core Update seems more significant. However, even there, as mentioned, more than a few verticals saw more dramatic volatility increases with the most recent update”
March Core update
Rolled out on 15, 2023 was focused on improving content quality online like all other core updates the update led to a spike in search engine research page SERPs from the very next day of its announcement. Higher volatility was seen in mobile rankings.
3. Spam Update
What is a Spam Update?
Google quoted “Google’s automated systems to detect search spam are constantly operating, we occasionally make notable improvements to how they work. When we do, we refer to this as a spam update and share when they happen on our list of Google Search ranking updates.”
Google released its spam update on 4 October 2023, it focused on plagiarized, misleading, and lack of originality and overly promotional rather than informative content. The spam update was wound up by October 20.
The update of the effect of increased spam results especially in the native tongues of the users.
Google uses AI and human reviewers to identify such content.
Content such as:
- It has little added value and is not human-generated.
- Hidden text and links that are only visible to search engines.
- Too many ads or too many direct or indirect promotions.
- Doorway pages that confuse search engines and users.
- False claims etc.
It is recommended that sites provide open doors, a see-through user experience, and true expertise.
It is also advisable to do regular website audits after the release of an update. You can check for misleading, AI-generated, scrapped, and hidden content or excessive ads that take away focus from the main content or are overly promotional content that does not impart much knowledge but promotes the business.
4. Helpful Content Update
What is a helpful content update?
The update focused on better rewarding content that satisfied users and also gave them a better user experience.
These updates focused on taking action on content that was not helpful yet ranking on SERPs, while many websites have content that is helpful and yet failed to rank on SERPs.
A tool that classifies this content is an automated tool. It works for all international languages. It is one among many signals Google uses for rankings.
The update released on 3 September 2023 brought two major changes. While Google also answers, How can sites recover from the effects of an update?
- google loosed up its barricades on AI-generated content
The previous update of Google had a strict policy “by people for people” improvised to “helpful content generated for people” The barricade has loosened around the AI content guidance by Google.
Signaling Google’s change of perspective towards AI content.
- Helpful content update putting an end to third-party content hosted on subdomains or the main part of the website.
The idea behind hosting third-party content on the main part or subdomain of the website is to rank with the use of the ranking power of the main website.
Google’s 2023 helpful content update website affected websites negatively that used this tactic to rank.
Self-assessment guidance that will help websites recover from the impact of helpful content update 2023.
The rule one and last that Google always implies constantly and talks very often is Creating; reliable, helpful, and people-first content.
Following is the guidance given by Google
- “Is this content written or reviewed by an expert or enthusiast who demonstrably knows the topic well?”
- “Are you changing the date of pages to make them seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed?”
- “Are you adding a lot of new content or removing a lot of older content primarily because you believe it will help your search rankings overall by somehow making your site seem “fresh?” (No, it won’t)”
