Common reasons for a website to be affected by a Google Core Update include issues related to content quality, user experience, and trustworthiness. These updates are designed to improve the relevance and quality of search results for users by penalizing or rewarding websites based on a variety of factors. Here are some of the key reasons websites may be impacted:
- Poor Content Quality: Websites with low-quality content, including thin content that lacks depth, duplicated content, or content that does not provide value to the user, are likely to be negatively impacted by core updates.123
- Bad User Experience: Websites that offer a poor user experience, such as confusing navigation, slow loading times, intrusive ads, or not optimized for mobile devices, may be penalized. A good user experience is crucial for retaining visitors and satisfying Google's ranking algorithms.12
- Trust Issues: Trustworthiness is a significant factor, especially for YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) websites, such as those offering medical, legal, or financial advice. Websites that lack E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) or present misleading information can be negatively affected. This includes issues with the author's credibility, inaccurate information, and need for more transparency about the website's ownership or purpose.13
- Technical SEO Problems: While not directly mentioned as a common reason for being hit by a core update, technical SEO issues can indirectly affect a website's performance by hindering Google's ability to crawl and index pages properly. This can include problems like broken links, improper use of tags, and poor site structure.
- Aggressive, Disruptive, or Deceptive Advertising: Websites that prioritize monetization over user experience through aggressive or deceptive advertising practices may see a decline in rankings. This can include excessive pop-ups, misleading ads, or content that is difficult to distinguish from advertisements1
- Lack of Mobile Optimization: In today's mobile-first indexing environment, websites not optimized for mobile devices may experience negative impacts from core updates. This includes issues like unresponsive design, slow mobile load times, and mobile usability problems.2
- Content Not Meeting User Intent: Content that fails to meet the user's search intent or does not provide comprehensive answers to their queries can be affected. Google aims to provide users with the most relevant and useful content for their search queries.2
Recovering from a Google core update involves addressing these issues by improving content quality, enhancing user experience, building trust through transparency and expertise, fixing technical SEO problems, and ensuring the website is optimized for mobile users. It's important to conduct a thorough audit of the website to identify specific areas for improvement and to understand that recovery may take time, often not seen until after the next core update rolls out.
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