by Google has rolled out quite a number of updates in the previous months. Most of the updates, as expected, have affected many websites. The search engine focuses more on providing helpful content to searchers by prioritizing Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EEAT).
Website owners need to know what to do and how to ensure their websites are not hit by the next updates. Web 20 Ranker has been working with its customers to get ahead of it, and some customers have shared their web 2.0 ranker testimonials to its effect. The agency has now shared its guide on what to do before Google’s next algorithm update.
Things To Do Before Google’s Next Update
As stated earlier, Google focuses more on delivering a well-rounded experience to searchers and users. This means the search engine is considering a lot more factors. Aside from the content on your website, the page experience also matters.
Delivering an excellent page experience is part of what Google considers when ranking your excellent content. Start by assessing the core web vitals and metrics like page load speed, accessibility, etc. You should also ensure that your website is mobile-friendly, as over 60% of internet searches are conducted on the phone.
Having a fluid layout with improved site speed can greatly impact your SEO. It can also improve your overall chances of ranking for your target competitive keyword.
2: Fix Common Errors in Google Search Console
Integrating your website into Google Search Console has many benefits. First, it allows you to monitor your website and serves as a keyword tool for harvesting important search queries you’re getting found for.
More than that, the search console also flags some common problems with your website and website pages. The free tool also includes important tools like Core Web Vitals and Mobile Usability, which gives you an overview of how your website is performing against Google’s standard benchmarks.
If you haven’t already set up your Google Search Console, now is the time to get started. If you already have things set up, go into the GSC panel and fix the errors flagged by the tool.
A website audit tells you all the important things you are missing out on that could be affecting your website, its ranking, and its visibility. Getting a site audit can help you to understand where your site is lagging behind, especially in comparison to other websites in your niche.
The report can also flag some critical problems like redirection problems, and broken backlinks, lack of internal linking strategies, broken links, and others. All of these problems can significantly impact your website and its online visibility. The audit can also point out other issues like missing H-tags, unoptimized title tags, no metadata and meta descriptions, etc.
Armed with your website audit report, you can proceed to identify the most critical problems on the report and fix them. Ensure that all fixes done are in line with Google’s webmaster guidelines to avoid future penalties.
4: Conduct a Content Refresh Campaign
The content on your website may be good, but it could be better. Sometimes, you may not need new content. Instead, you need to optimize and update your existing content. You can get a content audit report to understand where you have lost ranking and why.
Ranking loss due to outdated content can be fixed by updating the content while keeping user search intent in mind. Once updated, you can resubmit the content through your Google Search Console for indexing. You can then monitor the content via your preferred SEO tools.
In addition to updating existing content, you can also research the internet for other important questions or queries your target audiences are searching for. This can be done by combining a mix of Google Search Console data with third-party keyword research tools. Once identified, ensure that the topic is robustly discussed, touching on all areas of it and delivering it in a simple, easy-to-understand manner.
Remember that Google is more interested in Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Show Google that you are an expert to be trusted on the topic.
5: Prioritize User-Friendliness
With the above tasks done, you’re on your way to safeguarding your website from being hit by the next algorithm update. However, while implementing those changes, ensure user-friendliness remains at your strategies’ forefront. It is important to make your website user-friendly, focusing on the visitor’s perspective rather than just the business or SEO side.
