Google Updates and SEO Takeaways – May, 2020

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Google Updates
and SEO Takeaways –May, 2020

 

This Monthly NewsLetter is to cover any Google updates and SEO Takeaways from Google Hangouts and SEO Events and Roundups

 

Google Algorithm Update

 

 

How shall we best deal with this?

The short answer, there is nothing specific to worry about, Google Core updates aim to enhance the user experience on search results by serving more content relevancy to match with the search intent.

From Hummingbird algorithm update back in September, 2013 to Google Bert update which was rolled out worldwide in Dec, 2019, these two core algorithm updates and more aim to analyze the context of the words, not as a standalone sentence!

Chain Reaction’s search partners sensors have detected a >> deviation<< in the organic results in May 5th,

 

 

The following websites categories were highly affected:

• Health
• Pets and Animals
• Food and Drink
• Real Estate
• People and Society

While the following have witnessed medium change:

• Beauty and Fitness
• Games
• Online Communities
• Auto and Vehicles
• Law and Government
• Travel
• Internet and Telecom
• Computer and Electronics

Update: The most recent researches confirm that the core updated is focused mainly on the following factors:

• The quality and quantity of backlinks
• User experience signals
• Complaint of Social Media SERP Domination

 

• Etsy Double Listings

For example:

• Handmade Bongos is a keyword phrase that is dominated with two results from Etsy, two results from eBay, and one each from Pinterest and Amazon.

 

So now what to do: Our SEO experts advise the following:

• Do more Social Media Optimization across different platforms, in order to get more Visibility, such as Pinterest, Twitter, Quora, and all images websites.
• Is the Google Algorithm Update affected by the Quarantine Search: There is no doubt that the AI is playing a big rule in forming Google Algorithm updates, as long as AI is analyzing the user search behavior then this is normal to ger more algorithm updates based on the core shift in user behavior during the Quarantine
• Monitor your lost backlinks and try to gain more quality links that you loose.
• Do more presence on Marketplace websites such as Amazon, Ebay, Esty, etc..

Our SEO team at Chain Reaction will be working on a detailed report ,running
down the effects of this update on the website and in the industry and how to
best react to the update. Watch this space for a whole lot of reports that we
will be sharing with you real soon.

SEO Hangout TakeWAYS

1.

“ Web 2.0 backlinks are spammy links and they will not help in ranking”John Mueller, the senior Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google, stated

 

What is Web 2.0 profiles:

The technique of getting links from sites like Tumblr, classified sites, PDF sharing, video sharing, and any given links from profiles is called Web 2.0 Link Building

How can we promote our website while dodging all spammy links?

We need to put on our white hats SEO techniques, such as guest post articles on trusted websites in the eyes of Google.

This process needs a lot of time and effort as it is a critical process and needs to have a smart and knowledge-oriented approach.

Starting from implementing well-rounded research to choosing the relevant list of the websites in the targeted niche, which is also eligible for the SEO link value. Then outreach to publish your content (article or info-graphic).

And before all that you need to work on creating unique and valued content which shall be in a place of interest for the targeted audience and readers.

 

“
Our Content Marketing team in Chain Reaction, follow a white hat SEO
technique to improve our business partners’ website ranking, using an
advanced following link-building strategy

 

2.

Paid Backlinks still work” &
How did John Mueller answer this question?

“Someone asked John Mueller if buying links still works. John didn’t answer the question directly, he confirms that Google still uses links. But then he says there are other factors.” As explained in the previous questions, a white hat backlinks campaign will not hurt the SEO ranking, but you need to be
smart in setting up your backlinks campaign.

So, How does it work then?

Worrying a lot about backlinks, while other important factors are poor, will not
add the value you are looking for! We believe that the below are the top 5
ranking factors that every webmaster should focus on in 2020, as the following
in the same order in terms of priority:

• Indexation management: Clean Code, Pages indexation status, sitemap, canonical URL structure, mobile first index.
• Content Relevancy and Optimisations: Meta tags, on-page content, LSI, content length, structured data.
• UX and Performance: Website Speed, UI, engagement, Bounce rate, page-views per session, time on site.
• RankBrain: CTR, dwell time, etc..
• Backlinks Profile Quantity and Quality

 

3.

What types of URL does Google prefer
when It comes to AMP pages

The answer for his question is as simple as Mueller’s Response was when he said “As long as the AMP page is inside your domain and is easy to maintain, then you should not worry about this.”

 

 

“
Our SEO experts in Chain Reaction advise that the AMP page is to be at a
subfolder level under the main page to strength and crowd source it’s
authority, for example: domain.com/category/article/amp-versio

 

 

 

 

The answer for his question is as simple as
Mueller’s Response was when he said “As long as the AMP page is inside your
domain and is easy to maintain, then you should not worry about this.”

 

 

 

 

So to explain this, sometimes users type a search query, so Google now dives into their search index to popup the most relevant websites to this query, now what happens if Google doesn’t find a suitable website to match with this query? They will pop up a message claiming that the results are lower-than average quality

There is nothing in specific you can do here on your website as long as your web pages are fully optimized (indexation, meta tags, and content mainly)

 

4.

Your website appears on Adult
Queries! And you can’t fix it ?

The answer for his question is as simple as Mueller’s Response was when he said “As long as the AMP page is inside your domain and is easy to maintain, then you should not worry about this.”

 

 

If your website is ranking in adult queries, then this is okay by Google. But some of us may decide that they just don’t want to have their website on the adult queries especially If we don’t have any content related to adults!

Here is how you can deal with it

Check your Backlinks profile using Moz, Ahrefs or SEMrush, check for suspicious or spam backlinks that may harm your website, this is called Negative SEO or Black hat SEO when your competitor tries to demote your website ranking by linking to spam websites including adult ones., which may lead you to rank on some adult queries. The quick action here is to list all of the spammy domains or URLs and disavow them immediately via Google search console.

Review Content: Conduct an in-depth research inside your website pages, blog articles, hidden content in the source code, as some malware could inject spammy content including adult ones into your webpages, that require you to remove it and ask Google to refresh your indexation.

This requires the use of paid tools, such as DeepCrawl or your SEO expert agency can have a look at this.

 

If you have done all the above and you still rank for adult queries! Its okay, it happens!

 

From our experience some websites especially those that have articles or products that have some affiliation to adults’ queries, is the reasons that you appear on them, this is related to the user search behavior and the Hummingbird algorithm.

 

5.

“ Your website ranking is dropping” This doesn’t
necessarily call for an algorithm update!”

Google’s John Mueller answered a question about why a site lost ranking. His
answer focussed on the power of being different and how this quality can help a
site rank better.

So why would a website of 60K pages lose most of their
ranking? The short answer is, if nothing technical from your side caused this,
then you need to steer in a different direction than your competitors.

A tip from Chain Reaction

We advise that your website must be useful, compelling and the most
importantly it should be different than the others, if you have an
e-commerce website, copying the products manufacturer descriptions with
no added value, will lead to Google not preferring your website in
ranking!