Google Broad Core Algorithm Update: What is it and how to recover?

Bonoboz
google broad core algorithm update

On August 1, 2018, Google announced an update to their core algorithm which is called Broad Core Algorithm Update. Google’s Danny Sullivan announced the update on the Google Search Liaison Twitter Account.

In came the questions like: “What changed?” and “What should we do to adjust?”

So, here’s all you need to know about this recent algorithm update by Google.

What is Google Broad Core Algorithm Update?

Google makes numerous algorithmic changes per year and often more than one per day. You might be aware of various Google algorithms like Penguin, Panda, Pigeon, Fred, Hummingbird, etc. Each algorithm addresses some specific flaws and issues in the Google Algorithms.

But this is not a usual daily Google update. This update happens a few times per year to the core algorithm of the search engine. This update is, as the name suggests, broad and doesn’t focus on any one element of how a search engine works. Thus, the impact of this update is not specific but more central and far-ranging.

As mentioned earlier, this update is about tweaking the value of every aspect of the search engine. So, you have nothing in your hand to fix. The main thing to keep in mind about this core algorithm update is that it didn’t “penalize” you for something but rewarded other websites more for something else.

If the update were in a specific algorithm, you could easily figure out what you must work upon to adjust with the update. You can reverse engineer the change or take a corrective action to recover from the ill-effects of the algorithm update. A broad core algorithm change provides no such opportunities, because:

  • There is nothing wrong with your website or SEO
  • There is no ‘fix’ to recover
  • The focus is on the relevance of users

In short, many things change in such updates and the way they interact change too. So, there is no one suggestion for all. Every website that has lost its rankings will have a different solution.

How to recover from Broad Core Algorithms Update’s effects?

If your website rankings have been hit, stay strong! It’s just that Google’s algorithm found other websites with more EAT (expertise, authority, and trust) than your website. But keep following the SEO best practices to show Google that your website should rank higher.

Many changes were made to the Google Quality Raters guidelines too that could have indirectly impacted the SEO on your site. Of these changes, the most relevant are related to distracting ads, misleading clicks, clickbait titles, hate speech, and misinformation. Check your site now to see if any of these relate to your website or not as that could possibly have indirectly affected your site rankings.

You should focus on:

Following the guidelines are given by Google

This is as simple as it gets. If you are with Google, Google will be with you. Read Google Quality Raters Guidelines for better insights.

Cleaning the architecture of your website

Make the proper use of Title tags, Heading tags, Meta descriptions, and keywords and make your website architecture look clean for Google too.

Posting high-quality content on your website

Revamp your content strategy and focus on creating high-quality content for your target query and target audience.

Checking the inbound and outbound links, images and media files

The importance of these elements in SEO is huge. Check that your images have ALT tags, media files are of appropriate size and the links are not broken.

Checking the Google Search Console for reported errors to fix

Remove the technical errors from your web pages. You off-page SEO strategy will not work accurately if your website has technical errors to fix.

Building your site’s EAT (Expertise, Authority, and Trust)

Check your competitors’ sites and watch their performance. What is it that they are doing right, and you are not. Work on amping up your site’s EAT.

Conclusion

The Broad Core Algorithm Update affected the health and finance sites the most due to several reasons. If your site has been affected, focus on working on all the elements that can help your website rank higher. Most importantly, take a closer look at your competitors’ and your SEO strategies and keep a track of updates in Google’s Quality Raters guidelines. As you know, in SEO, even minor changes can have a big impact on your rankings.

However, Google will still give a refresh to this update. So, things can continue to go up and down. Just adjust and move forward.

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Bonoboz