Google's Just Not That Into You: Understanding Core Updates & Search Intent
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1. Core updates from Google periodically change how its algorithms assess and rank websites and pages. This can impact rankings through shifts in user intent, site quality issues being caught up to, world events influencing queries, and overhauls to search like the E-A-T framework. 2. There are many possible user intents beyond just transactional, navigational and informational. Identifying intent shifts is important during core updates. Sites may need to optimize for new intents through different content types and sections. 3. Responding effectively to core updates requires analyzing "before and after" data to understand changes, identifying new intents or page types, and ensuring content matches appropriate intents across video, images, knowledge graphs and more.
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Google's Just Not That Into You: Understanding Core Updates & Search Intent
- 1. Google’s Just Not That Into You Understanding Core Updates & Search Intent
- 2. I talk a lot about core updates…
- 4. “Don’t chase the algorithms” SEOs be like:
- 5. CONTENT So why do I care?
- 7. on April 23, 2012 Me sleeping peacefully Our company ranks #2 for our target keyword
- 8. Followed all the best practices from Moz Beginner Guide & Whiteboard Fridays Our 2012 SEO Strategy (my confession)
- 9. …but also, bought shady links… and it worked. At this time, it was conventional SEO wisdom. Our 2012 SEO Strategy (my confession)
- 10. April 24, 2012: The Penguin Update Destroyed all our rankings Set company into a panic I attempted to disavow thousands of links …I ended up resigning
- 11. Moved to the agency world Never Again
- 12. Fast forward to this agency client in 2017 An SEO opportunity that seemed to good to be true
- 13. I’ve got a bad feeling about this
- 14. …it was too good to be true. 2018 “Medic” core update Medic#2 Anothercoreupdate Another core update
- 15. “Recovery” took 3+ years … and required a brand new website Tonsofhardwork Future core updates
- 16. It’s not just a few sites affected by core updates…
- 17. Core updates wreak havoc on businesses
- 18. Before The Times presented evidence of the paid links to JCPenney.com, Google had just begun to roll out an algorithm change that had a negative effect on Penney’s search results. - 2011 NYTimes article about JC Penney
- 19. We are experiencing some slowing of our overall revenue growth which we believe is due in part to changes that Google made in its natural search engine algorithms, to which we are responding. - overstock.com earnings report in 2015
- 21. 16,000+ search quality evaluators provide Google feedback throughout the year
- 22. our MC, Cyrus, became a quality rater this year! Sidenote…
- 23. Raters determine: ✴Needs met (usefulness) ✴Page quality (E-E-A-T)
- 24. Raters provide feedback to Google, but they do not directly influence Google’s algorithms. Many other ranking systems are also at play.
- 25. Google announces core updates every few months, and adds them to their list of ranking updates
- 26. Google’s Official List of Updates
- 27. Ranking signals & weights are added, removed, and/or modified
- 28. How Google Wants You To Think About It Movie Movie Movie Movie Movie Movie in 2017 in 2023 Best movies
- 29. T h e r e ' s n o t h i n g wrong with pages that may not be performing as well as they were before a core update. -
- 30. In fact, there's nothing in a core update that targets specific pages or sites. Instead, the changes are about improving how our systems assess content overall. -
- 31. SEOs
- 33. 1. Site quality issues catch up to you
- 34. ✴ Aggressive advertising that affects usability & performance ✴ Significant thin or duplicate content ✴ Excessive low-quality local landing pages (doorway pages) ✴ Significant low-quality content lacking E-E-A-T ✴ Deceptive affiliate links ✴ Being too “salesy” with Your Money, Your Life information Examples of Systemic, Site-wide Quality Issues
- 35. We told them it was a bad idea May 2020 Core Update Client builT thousands of “fake” local landing pages A cautionary tale from a former client
- 36. (…and wait for next core update, or the one after) Prioritize fixing these issues Core Update Recovery Plan
- 37. 2. Changes in user behavior
- 38. February 2022: 6.550 6.550 August 2022: 21. 900 21.900 Search volume KEYWORD: “PLAYGROUND”
- 39. Plus, an adult toy store with the name “Playground” launched in May 2022 Mid-2022: Multiple “Playground” AI Tools Released
- 40. in Early 2022 SERP FOR “PLAYGROUND”
- 41. in April 2023 SERP FOR “PLAYGROUND” #1 Ranking: Adult toy store #2 Ranking: Playground AI company
- 42. Why aren’t we ranking #1 for “playground” anymore? If Your Client Sells Playgrounds Online:
- 43. Generic SEO Responses “We should build more links to this page” “We should change our title tag and meta description” “The #1 ranking site has a better Domain Authority than us”
- 44. Better, Data-Driven SEO Responses: “There is a temporary surge in demand due to recent press around two new companies called ‘Playground.’ It may subside over time.”
- 45. Better, Data-Driven SEO Responses: “‘Playground’ is not our top- converting keyword. We should analyze PPC data to identify the highest converting related terms to focus on.”
- 46. Better, Data-Driven SEO Responses: “We should shift our focus to Google Shopping & Images, where we see most conversions for this keyword”
- 48. DURING THE START OF COVID QUERY: MASKS ✴ Costume masks stopped ranking on page 1 ✴ The CDC, WHO, and FDA now appear on page 1 (+ position 1) ✴ Wikipedia disappeared
- 49. DURING THE START OF COVID QUERY: FLOUR ✴ A bakery franchise lost top positions ✴ A site offering sourdough recipes now ranks No.1 ✴ Shift toward ecommerce for sites that have flour in stock (Amazon & Target)
- 53. July 2018 May 2021 KEYWORD: HYDROGEN PEROXIDE
- 54. July 2018 May 2021 KEYWORD: NATURAL COUGH REMEDIES
- 55. ✴ Medical product reviews & weight loss supplements ✴ Fake authors, no real E-E-A-T ✴ Pushed products in medical content with affiliate links and discount codes Other sites impacted by the “Medic” core update:
- 56. The rise of medical authorities during the pandemic
- 57. 5. Relevancy Shifts & QDF (Query Deserves Freshness)
- 58. What Google thought this meant, before the July 2021 core update: ✴ a video game ✴ a hardware company STEEL DRAGON
- 59. What Google thought this meant, after the July core update: STEEL DRAGON ✴ a rock band ✴ a roller coaster
- 61. 6.Intent switching Last, but not least:
- 63. SEOs always talk about “THE 3 SEARCH INTENTS” 1. Transactional 2. Navigational 3. Informational
- 64. There are way more than 3 intents in SEO. Let’s be real.
- 65. More accurate list of actual search intents ✴ Buying a product ✴ Looking for pictures ✴ Reading product reviews ✴ Finding local businesses & activities ✴ Seeing recent news ✴ Fact checking ✴ Defining the word or phase ✴ Tutorials & troubleshooting ✴ Finding stock photos ✴ Recipes ✴ Medical symptoms ✴ Finding government resources ✴ Seeing pictures ✴ Booking a trip ✴ Watching a video ✴ Hearing a song ✴ Translating a phrase ✴ Spell check ✴ How to ✴ Lyrics ✴ Adult videos/images ✴ Researching reputation
- 66. Don’t forget about homonyms Break Roll
- 67. User behavior can tip the scales & cause intent shifts
- 68. Intent shifts are frequent during core updates
- 69. Google may determine that a keyword requires a new “intent” & adjust rankings during core updates
- 70. ✴ Zoom moved into position 2. ✴ Pages listing physical rooms were replaced by informational content. ✴ Wikipedia disappeared. QUERY: “CONFERENCE ROOM” Intent shifts at the start of COVID-19
- 71. Year-Over-Year Rankings for JUKEBOX
- 72. Shopping News Product reviews Article tag page Wikipedia definition Shopping Video Product reviews Recent article Wikipedia definition
- 73. What Google thought this meant, before the July 2021 core update: ✴ a correctional facility CORRECTIONAL
- 74. What Google thought this meant, after the July 2021 core update: CORRECTIONAL ✴ a keyword that should return a dictionary definition
- 75. Dictionary sites OFTEN FEEL THE BIGGEST IMPACTS DURING core updates Dictionary Intent: Defining words DICTIONARY SITE
- 76. Responding to Core Update Changes & Intent Shifts
- 77. Leveraging “Before & After” Features in SEO Tools rank tracking with screenshots, tools that show how URLs changed by position
- 78. Identifying What Changed intent switch? new type of page or website? different serp features?
- 79. Conducting side-by-side competitive analyses to ensure your page matches the right intent AI tools can support with this
- 80. CHATGPT
- 82. Creating content that covers *all the intents* This may require different site sections
- 83. Example: Tag Page vs Article Page Article page: Top 10 Superman movies Tag Page: (Superman articles, resources, bio, pictures) KEYWORD: SUPERMAN
- 84. Be everywhere search engines can find you.
- 86. Moving beyond text Audio
- 87. Moving beyond text Reels
- 88. Moving beyond text Podcasts
- 93. Moving beyond text Google Perspectives
- 94. Moving beyond text Optimizing for Google’s SGE and Bing Chat
- 96. If your site is affected by a core update, you might have to wait until the next update rolls out, or the one after that, to see a change in performance.
- 97. Remember that intent shifts can be inevitable and it’s not always easy - or even possible - to use SEO to counteract what Google chooses to rank.
- 98. Optimize all the things! Provide content that meets all possible intents to cover as much ground as possible.
- 99. THANK YOU