How to Recover from Google Algorithm Update – 7 Steps to Get Your Website Back on the Right Track
Learning how to recover from Google algorithm update is one of the most important ways a webmaster can keep ahead of the curve and anticipate issues before they arise. By doing so, you’ll be in a much better position ahead of schedule so if anything happens, you can fix it quickly!
Table of contents:
- How Can a Google Algorithm Update Impact Your Website?
- How to Recover from Google Algorithm Update?
- New Updates Don’t Have To Be a Disaster
How to recover from Google core update executions depends on how much pre-planning you have done and what steps you have taken to have success. By learning these steps, you’ll be able to handle anything that the algorithm throws your way and move past new changes with ease!
How Can a Google Algorithm Update Impact Your Website?
As a massive company in control of large swathes of the internet, Google is constantly performing updates on a daily basis. That’s why many people are faced with the question of how to recover from Google algorithm update.
Most of these changes are completely unnoticed by many users worldwide and never get any of the renown since they are so inconsequential. Other updates, like major updates to the core algorithm usually have effects that many notices.
These updates have the capability to really unsettle the foundations of any website, so they’re important to understand. Massive changes can lead to unintended results, meaning that you need to go back to work to restore your website’s SEO.
See what are the most important Google algorithm changes in the past 3 years.
Was My Website Affected By a New Update?
Understanding how to recover from Google algorithm update depends on a large part in finding out if your site was affected in the first place.
Many changes go completely unnoticed, often until it’s too late, so if you need to find out how to recover from Google core update you need to evaluate your website first. First and most obvious, if there are any complications with your website, be sure they aren’t due to user error!
Keeping note of any sudden changes for your website is crucial in finding out a solution to any potential issue that might arise.
How to Recover from Google Algorithm Update?
Unfortunately, there’s never a way to predict whether or not Google will implement an idea that breaks your website, nor is there really a way to be able to fully prepare for large changes to the core algorithm.
There are no quick fixes here – only lots of hard consistent work. One of the most important starting points for recovery is to understand what Google has done by reading its technical documentation.
Not only will this give you an idea of what to expect, but they will often also post official guidelines of best practices that you can follow for best results. Staying up to date with this information is absolutely critical to the long-term health of your website!
While sometimes a new algorithm update might not be permanent and any damage to your site may revert, there are times when you need immediate solutions in order to fix your problems.
Here are some tips on how to recover from Google algorithm update.
1. Look Into the Specifics of the Update
One of the best ways to position yourself in a way where you can solve the most problems that arise is by fully understanding what has happened to the Google algorithm.
Read news about the latest update, read other people’s content about it – webmasters, bloggers, SEO specialists, etc – and see if they have any solutions on how to recover from Google core update.
Fully understand what actually happened. This way you’ll be able to have a better idea of how to fix issues.
2. Use a Variety of Tools to Spot Problems
There are many tools out there that you can use to help detect broken links on your site, thin content, technical issues, and various other things that you will need to understand in order to fix your site.
Fixing problems with backlinks, for instance, are easy with the Disavow Tool. Other tools include things like Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, SEMrush, Deepcrawl, and many others.
3. Analyze Your Content and Make Sure it’s Great
Preparation is the most important step when you’re trying to recover from Google algorithm update. After taking some notes and doing research about where your site can improve and what specifically the new Google algorithm is doing, you will be able to take action.
Figuring out which of the content you have created needs to be improved according to the Google guidelines is definitely a great starting step to success.
One way you can determine this is to use a high-profile tool like the ones listed above (Ahrefs, SEMrush) and perform an analysis to determine which, if any, of your content pages has seen a significant drop. This means that it most certainly was affected by the update and will need to be modified.
From here, ensuring that every piece of content on your website follows the EAT principle is crucial. EAT content is based around:
- The Expertise of the creator of the content
- The Authoritativeness of both the website and the creator
- and the Trustworthiness of the content and its creator
Update Your Content
After content analysis, updating problematic content is the obvious next step to recover from Google core update.
Make sure everything you have is up-to-date and relevant and make sure that the content hosted on your website abides as best as possible to the EAT criteria.
Cover Your Topics In-Depth
Long-form analyses of content usually lead to the best results when it comes to comprehensiveness and authority.
One factor to consider with authoritative content is how well-researched and all-encompassing it truly is, meaning that it’s better to do long, broad strokes content instead of simple summary sketches.
Create User-Friendly Content
The user experience is a critical factor when it comes to revising your content. The intention of your users needs to be at the forefront of your mind when creating and editing your content.
Remember that the ability of your content to answer questions for your audience is one of the most important factors in having your website rank highly. Never forget that your content should be aimed at assisting as much as possible!
4. Improve Your Overall Trustworthiness
Trustworthiness is an often confusing metric that is difficult to pin down but exists to let Google know that your content is legitimate. Trustworthy sites are sites that people visit without issue and link to and from without hesitation.
An example of a metric used in trustworthiness is bounce rate – the speed at which people leave your site and the time they spend on it. If you have a trustworthy site, people won’t be in such a hurry to leave – but if your site is simply a spam-filled malware farm, then the bounce rate will be incredibly high!
In addition to bounce rate, backlinks also play a critical role in determining site trustworthiness. Sites with high authority linking to you are a great way for Google to determine your site’s intentions.
If you want to recover from Google algorithm update you should definitely check if your website is trustworthy and fix any existing problems. Don’t forget about SSL certification! It’s a very important sign for users, that a website is secured and can be trusted.
5. Check-In With the Competition
If your website lost ranking, there’s a good chance that your competitors have as well. It’s time to do some digging!
When you analyze the metrics of your competition and see that they’re having similar problems as you, you can see how they fix their site to recover from Google core updateand take those changes on yourself.
SEMrush is a great tool to use for competition analysis, but there are many others out there with similar functionality. Checking on the competition is a great way to gather more information for potential improvements and changes you can implement to recover from a major Google algorithm update!
Competition Analysis in SEMrush
- Start by making a list of competitors that you wish to analyze.
- Enter a domain, keyword, or specific URL into SEMrush to get a broad range of data.
- Find the competition section of the data to delve into the specifics of the content you are interested in.
6. Sort Out Any Technical SEO Problems
Many of the fundamental SEO practices are essential to the long-term health of your ranking. Some of these include the usability for mobile devices, page load speed, core web vital statistics, and more.
These are key aspects to inspect because they are all at the heart of the user experience and a smooth user experience translates directly to optimal SEO. Large Google updates might hinder your relationship with your audience, so make sure all these technical considerations are satisfied!
7. Try to Manage the Future
While it’s impossible to fully plan for and understand what future updates might look like, sticking as close to the Google guidelines is always the best way to respond to any new change.
Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines are an extensive list of things you can do to make sure you’re in Google’s best books. Following these guidelines will always find your success, regardless of what kind of changes Google has implemented. Following these guidelines is the best way to recover from Google core update and prevent major problems in the future.
New Updates Don’t Have To Be a Disaster
With proper planning and preparation, you will never have to worry about recovering from a large update to Google algorithm.
Google already prioritizes exceptional content and has various lists of guidelines to follow in any situation enabling you to take power over anything that happens. That being said, no one can fully understand what may or may not happen with future updates, so adaptation and maintenance are critical!
Always try to act as quickly as possible when facing new algorithm updates and ensure that you have the basics covered already. This will ensure that new transitions will go along much more smoothly than they could otherwise be.
Prevention is always better than cure, so find out how can we help you to make your website bulletproof to any Google algorithm changes!
