How To Hitch A Ride On Googles Updates To Soar Ahead In The Rankings
In the past, most SEOers dreaded Google’s updates. They never knew what Google was going to do next. Typically, those that took blatantly flouted Google’s guidelines got hit the worst. Those that stayed close to the guidelines typically increased in rank, or at least didn’t usually get affected negatively. Funny thing is that this same pattern continues on and on.
The question is therefore, how can you get the rankings but not get hit when ever Google does an update? It is a tough question to answer in short, other than to say “you should hitch a ride on Google’s updates to soar ahead in the rankings”. OK, so what does that even mean? Well, read on.
In the last year, according to Google, they have made a massive 2,017 changes to its algorithm! In 2010, Matt Cutts said that they made up to 400 changes per year, so you can see where the trend is going. Back in the earlier days, Google algorithm, although complex, was simpler than it is today. Now, it is a vast mathematical machine on a scale that far exceeds the coding and processing of back in 2010. The changes Google has made this year have mostly been a mix of:
- New features
- Feature improvements
- Ranking changes
- Interface changes
What Can We Do With This Information?
OK, back to hitching the ride. If we look back at what Google is always trying to achieve with its updates, we can see that its sole purpose is to provide 2 things: –
- More accurate search results for its users
- A better user experience
With this in mind, I ask you to take a look at your websites home page first. While you are looking at it, ask yourself….
“If I searched on Google for (your main search phrase), and I landed on my own home page. Would what I deliver on this page satisfy me for what I searched for”?
If it doesn’t provide a 100% satisfaction experience, it means you have room for improvement. It is this improvement that Google is coding its algorithm for to elevate those that deliver and lower those that don’t.
Once you have done this with your home page, you should then do the same with your posts, both existing and new.
Here is an example of a piece of content that satisfies the search with a 100% satisfaction experience. The search phrase is “what is cellulite and how is it formed”, and here’s the page that provides a great experience https://nocelluliteguide.com/what-is-cellulite/.
Now this page, at the time of writing, has zero backlinks (according to Majestic) and is ranking at position #15 on Google (mid page 2). All the pages above it are massive, high domain authority super sites. So this page is ranking well for one that has had no SEO done to it.
So with this page, it is hitching a ride on Google’s algorithm in spite of the Medic update (more on this in a moment), because it delivers exactly what Google wants to deliver to its users
The point I am making is that you need to do these 2 things to position yourself to ride the algorithm wave: –
- Make sure you create laser targeted posts.
- Over deliver with your content
Your content must be ultra laser targeted. Unless you have one of those super high authority sites, you are not going to rank with a short tail profitable search phrase such as “how to lose weight fast” or “best digital camera for sale”. Google doesn’t want to rank generic pages and posts any more. They want to show specific solutions provide a 100% satisfaction experience to its users. It partly does this by algorithmically accessing the quality of your content. The evaluation of the words on the page / post with the use of TD IDF (term frequency–inverse document frequency) and the response / actions made by the people Google sends to your page / post. If your content is laser targeted and not broad, you are more likely to “hit the nail on the head” than you would with a woolly broad piece of content.
Tough Core Updates
Not all of Googles update are going to be as simple to work around though. Take the “Medic”, “E.A.T.” (Expertise, Authority & Trust) & YMYL (Your Money Your Life) updates that were rolled out in August 2018. These updates have hit hundreds of millions of sites across a mass number of niches. People typically say that it only hits medical and financial sites. This partly true. Those sites can be hit if the people highlighted as the site spokespeople are not qualified in the industry, and or have little to no experience. Also, sites that don’t blatantly provide details about themselves with contact details will not be able to instil peoples / Google’s trust.
What this means is that if I launch a health based site where I give medical guidance. Google is going to devalue my site according to the August updates (and other ongoing core updates). The reason being, I am not medically qualified. If I was, I would state this on my site. Also, to ensure that my site wasn’t hit by this core update, I would link to other sites that verified my expertise. I would do the same with experience and by doing so, I increase my trust. Trust is something I could help improve, by adding my “About me” page where I could outline content to instil trust with people and also Google. Trust also comes from other sites in the same industry linking to my site.
The down side of these core updates is that if you are in a Google “high risk” niche such as medical or financial and you are not qualified with no expertise or trust, then Google will devalue your site. This means that you can still rank, but your site will be less efficient to rank. An example might be with horse racing, where a horse is handicapped and given extra weight to carry. That would be my medical site, metaphorically speaking. Compared with another horse that has no added weight (A real medical practitioners’ site that is set up correctly). If your site (where you are not a qualified expert) is the horse with the added weight, you could still do well in the race, but others without the added weight will have a far better advantage.
Conclusion
To best hitch a ride on Google’s updates will mean you looking at your site and updating it in the following areas: –
- Make your existing content more comprehensive, adding more expert relevant words & phrases to each post
- Ensure your new content is more targeted. For example, instead of writing a post titled “How to catch bass”, be more specific and title it “Best bait to use to catch Wide Mouth Bass”
- Ensure your About us page is comprehensive, and you project yourself professionally. Be sure to over deliver on this page. Google’s core update will spread to all niches in this area most likely
- Make yourself more contactable on your contact us page. This increases trust because it makes you more transparent
- Avoid hiding information. For example, if you are a finance money lender and you hide the killer clauses, Google does not like that. This can apply to any area though. For example, you might have an affiliate site where you sell affiliate products. If you openly declare this, you show yourself transparent and increase trust. There will be other examples, so give it some thought
- Make your meta title and description to have less hype and / or aggression if it is that way. For example, if you have a hair care site with a post title and description like this below, reel it in and tame it a bitTitle: Cure In 24 Hours For Male Pattern Baldness
Description: If you are a bald man, you can now grow your hair back like it was when you were young. Get rid of baldness in 24 hours visit now! - In your content, be sure to cite authority data. So if you are coming up with statistics or information, it does your SEO well to link to an authority in the subject. Use a No Follow link when you link out
If you want to be ahead of the game, you can always download Google’s Rater guidelines PDF document. See how your site matches up to it. Google is coding out what is in this document.
We hope that helps!
All the best,
Chris and John