Table of Contents
Older Google Algorithm Updates: 2023, 2021, 2020, 2019, Other Updates
December 2022 Link Spam Update Rollout Completed
Announced on 14th December, the December 2022 Link Spam Update took close to a month to complete the rollout. On January 12th, Google officially announced that both Link Spam Update and Helpful Content update rollout has been completed.
In fact, both these updates were expected to take around two weeks to complete. However, due to the holiday season, Google said the update will be delayed.
Today, with our December 2022 link spam update, we’re leveraging the power of SpamBrain to neutralize the impact of unnatural links on search results. The update launches today & will take about two weeks to rollout. Learn more: https://t.co/ACO2Ut8wmi
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) December 14, 2022
The purpose of the Link Spam update is to improve the effectiveness of the spam detection system and help protect users from spammy or low-quality content.
It is not yet known what specific changes was be included in this update, but it is likely that it had significant implications for websites that use spammy link building tactics.
According to the announcement made by Google following the launch of the update, its AI-based spam-prevention system called SpamBrain has attained improved capabilities to detect unnatural backlinks with this update.
SpamBrain system is designed to better identify and nullify unnatural links, including those on sites that engage in link buying or link building activities. Google now believes this AI system has been trained to an extend where it can now keep 99% of its search results spam-free.
This way, Google’s new algorithm update will push down the rankings of low quality that have received undue advantage due to backlinks that were bought.
This update is part of Google’s ongoing efforts to improve the effectiveness of its spam detection system and provide a better experience for users.
The extent to which your site is affected by this update will depend on how you acquire links and how you link out to other pages.
It is important to ensure that your linking practices are natural and in line with Google’s guidelines in order to avoid any negative effects on your site’s ranking.
Want to see your website at the top? Don’t let your competitors outshine you. Take the first step towards dominating search rankings and watch your business grow. Get in touch with us now and let’s make your website a star!
December 2022 Helpful Content Update Rollout Completed
Google completed the rollout of December 2022 Helpful Content Update on January 12th 2023.
The announcement about the update rollout appeared on the official Twitter handle of Google Search Central.
The Dec. 2022 helpful content update was released Dec. 5, starting to become more visible today & will take about two weeks to fully roll out. It improves our classifier & works across content globally in all languages. Our help page explains more: https://t.co/MS7hbcBTsp
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) December 6, 2022
This latest helpful content update was expected to take two weeks to completely roll out, however, it took a few more weeks due to the holiday seaso..
The ideals behind the Helpful content update remain the same, and Google considers it a vital step towards making sure that only original content that satisfies the user’s intent ranks higher on search results.
What Does Helpful Content Update Mean to You?
Google says the Helpful content update algorithm works by assessing each website with a few classifiers that can determine if the content produced is helpful or unhelpful.
That said, the Helpful content update is a sitewide update. This means if Google finds a site producing a lot of unhelpful content over helpful ones, it will look for alternatives even for the content that’s useful.
Here are some key classifiers that determine the usefulness of the content.
AI Content
If you are a website owner who extensively uses AI technology to create content, you may have to revisit the strategy.
Google’s Helpful content update may crack down on websites that produce content that’s purely written by AI without human intervention or intelligence put into making the content useful to the readers.
Write for a Focus Audience
If you have a website that writes about everything under the sun, you have a higher chance of seeing the impact of the new Helpful content update. There are exceptions to this, especially if you’re a news or publishing website.
However, Google is trying to map each website to a particular niche industry and then evaluate the authority of the site based on the content shared. This means that you need to find a niche industry and your website’s primary focus audience.
Expertise of the Content Creator
We have been seeing Google depending on a lot of EAT factors to rank YMYL websites. Now, it looks like Google is expanding the ambit as it says, the expertise of content creators and their first-hand experience in whatever they write about will be a key determining factor.
Check the Time Spent on Page
This is probably the most important reason why you should care for this update. If the user isn’t satisfied with the content you provide, there’s a higher chance that the Helpful content update will hit your website.
If Google sees a pattern where the users who land on your website leave it within a few seconds and come back to the search with the same query they entered to land on your page, this gives the search engine all the bad indication that your content failed to satiate the users intent.
So, make sure that your content is engaging and hooks the users for a few minutes. Also, try adopting methods that can reduce the bounce rate, which again will increase the time the user spends on your website.
Title & Content Mismatch
Are you using clickbait titles that are only intended to attract users to your page without the page actually providing the promised value? Then the helpful content update could be your nemesis. Google, with the help of its language learning algorithms like MUM and BERT, can now easily understand which page provides value and which one doesn’t. So, make sure your content does what it preaches.
Sticking to Higher Word Count for Ranking Purposes
Do you write thousands of words just to make sure all the keywords are used within the content? Google says you are on the wrong side because the intention of stuffing a lot of content is to trick the search engines and not to provide any value addition to the user who is reading it. Such practices have been for long disputed by Google spokespersons, and with the Helpful content update, it’s becoming even more important.
Speculative Content
When a site creates content around incidents or topics that are speculative or highly imaginative, the chances are such content will not show up on Google. The official page for Helpful Content Update says to avoid creating content that promises to answer a question that actually has no answer, such as suggesting there’s a release date for a product, movie, or TV show when one isn’t confirmed.
Recovery Process for Sites Hit by the Helpful Content Update
Unlike the core updates that impact the rankings of specific pages within a site, the Helpful content update has a sitewide impact. This means the sites that are affected will see an overall decline in rankings and traffic in the days after the launch.
Google says the ranking of the sites hit will not improve unless it sees a genuine effort from the website owner to make the content better or by removing the content that is less useful for the users.
The search engine giant says its classifiers will try to reassess the quality and usefulness of the content for many months. If the website improves the overall quality and abstains from publishing unhelpful content, the ranking will improve, and previous classifiers will no longer apply.
Google Rolling Out October 2022 Spam Algorithm Update
Google has confirmed that an algorithm update targeted to fight spam is rolling out to search results worldwide and in all languages. According to Google, the October 2022 spam update will take quite some time to completely roll out. (Quite obvious because it took 11 months of preparation for Google to launch it.
To ensure the quality of its search engine results, Google routinely releases spam updates. However, the exact details of these updates are rarely publicized, except when it targets specific types of spam, such as the link spam update of August 2021.
Google clearly defines what it considers spam, which involves tricking users into providing personal information or installing malware on their computers. Spam updates help to identify phishing scams and other fake sites that try to rank in search results by posing as relevant pages.
While some may consider thin web pages spam, they do not meet Google’s definition of spam. Thin content is more likely to get hit by Google’s helpful content algorithm. Hackers can even compromise sites that follow Google’s Search Essentials. If a site is not adequately secured, it could be unknowingly serving spam to users.
If you observe a drop in rankings following the October 2022 spam update, you should examine your site’s security and look for signs of a possible attack. Generally, when Google hits a site with a spam update, its content will either get demoted in the search results or deindexed from Google.
If a spam update has hit your website, Google says it could take months to recover, provided you’re willing to make the necessary changes to comply with Google’s spam policies.
September 2022 Core Algorithm Update Rollout Completed (September 26, 2022)
Google makes it official that the rollout of its September 2022 core algorithm update is complete now.
Initiated on September 12, just three days after Google’s Helpful Content Update finished rolling out, the September 2022 core update took two weeks to go live completely.
This is the second core update of the year following the May 2022 core algorithm update.
However, in terms of impact, the SEO community claims that this update is pretty swift to hit but less impactful than the previous core updates.
Though this update hasn’t created a massive impact, there may be sites that are affected after this core update.
If your site is one of them, all you have to do is take a closer look at what Google has to say about its core updates and make fixes on your site accordingly.
That will pretty much help you recover your site, especially since the advice comes straight from the horse’s mouth.
September 2022 Product Reviews Update Rollout Complete (September 26, 2022)
Google confirms the completion of the September 2022 Product Reviews Update rollout on September 26, 2022.The news has come after the search engine giant quietly updated the same on its Google Search ranking updates page.
Launched on September 20, the September 2022 Product Reviews update is now completely live in a week’s time.
Also, it is noteworthy that Google made public this Product Reviews Update rollout completion on the same day it announced that its September 2022 core algorithm update is done rolling out.
That being said, website owners and SEOs now have two fresh algorithm updates to look up to if they see significant changes in their site’s Google search rankings.
If your site isn’t review-based, you just have to pay focused attention to the core update. On the other hand, if you are someone running a website that features product reviews, you should give equal attention to both the updates to fix things for your site.
As Google’s John Mueller states, “With the core updates, we don’t focus so much on just individual issues, but rather the relevance of the website overall.”
So, core updates target all sites while Product Reviews updates specifically target product review sites. That holds true for Google’s September 2022 updates as well.
Make sure you follow Google’s Guidelines keeping in mind the nature of your website.
September 2022 Product Reviews Update Rolls Out (September 20, 2022)
Google announced the rollout of its September 2022 Product Reviews Update on September 20, 2022.
This is the fifth algorithm update in a series of updates focusing on review sites.
Following its release on September 20, 2022, this update is expected to finish rolling out in a week.
While Google made a mention of a product reviews update arriving in August, this update has arrived a bit late following the release of Google’s September Core Algorithm Update.
That said, if you see a fluctuation in your site’s ranking any time soon, you are likely to wonder if it is because of the core update or the product reviews update.
Basically, the Product Reviews Update targets sites that publish product reviews. So, if your site features review-based content, the rise or drop in rankings is most probably the aftermath of the September 2022 Product Reviews Update.
On the other hand, if you don’t run a review site but still see fluctuations in your SERP positioning in the near future, then Google’s September Core Update may be what’s driving the change.
Google September Core Algorithm Update Rollout Started
Google has confirmed the rollout of the September Core Update just a week after the rollout of the much-hyped Helpful Content update.
Today we released the September 2022 core update. We’ll update our ranking release history page when the rollout is complete: https://t.co/sQ5COfdNcb
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) September 12, 2022
The release of the latest core update from Google could take up to 2 weeks to complete, during which websites could see massive ranking fluctuations.
Like in the past, the core update is intended to shake up the SERP rankings, and the sites that Google finds are offering better value to the search intent of the users will benefit from the update.
However, the sites that see massive ranking drops don’t have to panic. Google suggests such sites revisit the content within the pages that saw the rankings drop.
Making the content relevant to the users is the only way to wriggle out of the impact of the core update. Google has a dedicated page about what site owners should know about Google’s core updates.
On this page, the search engine giant clearly states that the ranking drop isn’t happening because of link quality or other SEO issues. Instead, Google’s algorithm may have found other websites with previously underperforming pages despite the tremendous effort to make the content highly relevant to the users.
By asking a few fundamental questions about your content, you can assess whether your content strategy is aligned with Google’s recommendations.
Fifteen content quality questions to ask if hit by Google’s core update
- Do real people write your content for real people?
- Have you spent time and effort adding unique information to your content consistently?
- Are you just touching the surface level of the topic or going in-depth?
- What is it that you have in your content that makes it better when compared to the competitors?
- Have you over-optimized the title, description and content to attract bots and not real users?
- Are you using a clickbait strategy to get the attention of the users?
- Does your content have the potential to get natural references (backlinks)?
- Is the content written by someone who has extensive expertise in the field?
- Do you focus on a niche or write about anything under the sun?
- Is your content going against the generally scientifically proven facts?
- Will people lose money or life after trying the recommendations within your content?
- Does the content follow grammatical best practices?
- Is it syndicated content?
- Does the content accompany intrusive interstitial elements that cause hindrance to the user experience?
- How good is the mobile experience of your content?
Helpful Content Update Rollout Complete – September 9th
Google has confirmed that the rollout of the Helpful Content Update is now complete.The latest algorithm update from Google started rolling out on the 25th August and the roll out took 15 days to complete.
Though it was touted or rather feared to bring in massive fluctuations in the SERP rankings, the update had its impact only on very few sites.
The update was announced as a new site wide signal that intended to classify websites based on the helpfulness of the content they published.
Google warned against the practices of publishing auto-generated AI content, surface level content that adds no value and content that are based on assumptions.
Sites that are hit by the update are recommended to revisit the published content and ensure only high quality and relevant content are made available for Google to crawl.
If you are a publisher who keeps the content unique, valuable to the user and highly authentic, the chances are this update will be a boon rather than a bane.
The only time the update showed massive ranking fluctuations was on September 8th, just a day before the roll out was complete.
If you want to know more about the new helpful content update, here is a detailed post that can help you understand the new signal fully.
Helpful Content Update Rollout Begins
The rollout of the Helpful content update began on August 25, as Google had earlier announced, and the official search ranking updates page has included it. Though the update was launched on the 25th, Google estimates it to take at least a week or two for the entire rollout to complete.
There isn’t any immediate chatter about significant ranking fluctuations. Still, Google, during the pre-announcement, had confirmed that the impact of the update could take up to two months to reflect.
We also know that the helpful content is now a signal within the core update, which means the signal could be used when googlebots recrawl web pages.
I have done an extensive article about helpful content update and how website owners can adapt to the new signal that the search giant has incorporated into its algorithm.
Helpful Content Update Pre-Announced
Google has preannounced the next big update! This one is the Helpful Content Update and will be rolled out during this week.
Our “helpful content update” launching next week will better surface original, helpful content made by people, for people, rather than content made primarily to gain search traffic. It’s part of a broad effort to show more unique, authentic info in results https://t.co/LlCqoP4RPy
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) August 18, 2022
Even though we aren’t sure about the timelines, it’s expected to take one or two weeks for the rollout to complete.
This update is expected to have a wide-reaching impact as Google has confirmed that websites that fail to satisfy the search intent of the users will see a ranking drop.
Additionally, the Helpful Content Update is going to be a site wide update which means sites that publish a lot of unhelpful content such as Ai auto-generated, rephrased, scraped and content that covers basics that people already are aware about will see a massive drop as they are classified as unhelpful.
Some SEOs are speculating this as the Panda 2.0 update because the impact is expected to be as severe or worse than what the Panda update did back in 2012.
The focus of this update would be to rank websites that publish original content written by real people (not Ai) for real people (not for googlebots.)
Additionally, generic websites that write about all the topics under the sun may find it hard to rank after this update. Google has categorically stated that the update will boost rankings for sites that publish content for which they have proven expertise.
When it comes to the expertise of the writer, Google is again suggesting that content written by people who have prior digital footprints writing about the topic will see the articles ranking higher. Also, we believe the freshness of the content will also play a vital role.
That also means content that ranks today may lose its ranking a few months later if they fail to refresh it with timely updates that can add more value to the article.
Overall, with this upcoming update, Google wants all website owners to focus on creating content that really helps the users.
If Google finds enough evidence of unsatisfactory user interaction with the content, sites would see their rankings taking a hit.
We will update you with more information once the rollout starts.
July 2022 Product Reviews Update Roll Out Completed
Launched on July 27, 2022, Google’s July 2022 Product Reviews Update finished rolling out on August 2, 2022.While it was expected to take anywhere from two to three weeks, the news of this algorithm update completion in just six days comes as a surprise to the SEO community.
Though some sites seem to have been hit harder by this algorithm update, there’s not really much talk about it in the industry.
As you probably know, Google has its ways and this update is a way of Google rewarding review sites that publish better content.
That also means review sites that fall short of value-added content are likely to see a drop in rankings.
If you are running a review website, it’s time to check your traffic rate.
Do you see a rise in traffic, or does it remain the same? Keep up the good work.
If you are one of those sites hit hard after this algorithm update, your competitors are probably creating better content than yours, which means you need to revamp your content strategy.
July 2022 Product Review Algorithm Update
Google rolled out its July 2022 product review algorithm update on 27 July 2022.
This is the fourth algorithm update in a series of updates targeting product reviews.
Google took to Twitter to make the official announcement.
Today we released the July 2022 product reviews update. We'll update our ranking release history page when the rollout is complete: https://t.co/sQ5COfdNcb
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) July 27, 2022
Launched on 27 July 2022, this algorithm update will finish rolling out in two to three weeks.
No specific guidelines are mentioned regarding the July 2022 product review algorithm update as of now.
Being an extension of Google’s product review algorithm first launched in March 2021, this algorithm update is expected to reward sites that publish product reviews based on in-depth research rather than the ones that just rephrase the information that appears on the manufacturer’s website.
So, does it impact all sites? No
This is NOT a core update and, therefore, is not applicable to all sites.
It also does NOT apply to e-commerce sites where customers can write reviews because they don’t count as full-fledged review articles.
It only impacts sites that publish long-form product reviews.
So, if you see fluctuations in your review website’s search rankings anytime soon, it is probably because of the July 2022 product review algorithm update.
From Google’s product review updates, it is visible that Google prioritizes reviews that add value to users.
The search engine is fond of reviews that are based on tried and tested first-hand experiences rather than cooked-up reviews.
Tell Google that you meet its expectations by including the benefits, shortcomings and features of products you review and also compare them with other similar products.
Also, include images of products you review.
May 2022 Core Algorithm Update Rollout Completed (June 9, 2022)
Two weeks into the rollout of the June 2022 Core Update, Google has confirmed on 9th June, that the rollout is complete.
The May 2022 core update rollout is now complete.
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) June 9, 2022
It’s important to note that there were major fluctuations throughout these two weeks and we have seen websites gaining rankings, then losing them in a matter of days and then regaining them back.
It definitely looks like Google had some major changes done to the core algorithm during this update. So, hopefully, we won’t see another one for another few months. Fingers crossed.
May 2022 Core Algorithm Update
Google has confirmed the May 2022 Core Algorithm Update rollout, which effectively means the season of volatile SERPs fluctuation is back. There has been a lot of chatter around an impending Google Core Update as it’s been six months since we last saw Google rolling out one. The last time Google launched a core update was in November 2021.
Though two product review updates followed this in December and March, the impact was limited to review sites.
We don’t like hate-mongering, and we see core updates more as an opportunity than a bane. That’s because, with core updates, Google is trying to make the search landscape a level-playing field by lifting the rankings of the sites that have done exceptionally well during a specific period of time.
While a few sites get the benefit, a few others may see their rankings being taken over. But that points out the need to update the content to match the new user intent and the updates in the industry they are in.
So, what I mean to say is that if you see a drop in your rankings, that could indicate that it’s time to refresh the content of those pages.
As Danny Sullivan, the Public Liaison for Search at Google, tweeted, “Core updates are changes we make to improve Search overall and keep pace with the changing nature of the web.”
Today, we're releasing a broad core update, as we do several times per year. This update is called the May 2022 core update. Learn more: https://t.co/7kFklwdkAb
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) May 25, 2022
Further, the search engine giant claims that though nothing in a core update is specific to any particular site, these core updates may create noticeable changes to the way certain sites perform in organic results.
To know more about core updates, Google again points to its existing guidance about core updates published in August 2019.
Here is a brief look at Google’s general guidelines regarding core updates.
- Expect apparent impacts, including a rise or drop in search engine rankings.
- Google’s core updates are broad as they don’t target or are specific to any particular site. Instead, they are devised to boost the overall relevance of search results and make them more resourceful for everyone.
- Web pages that see a drop in search engine rankings are not penalized. They are just re-evaluated against the other content that’s gone live after the last update.
- Focusing on publishing the best possible content is the topmost recommendation to handle the kind of impact a core algorithm update has brought about.
- Broad core updates may come up every few months. Chances are, sites may stay unrecovered from one update until the next update takes place
- Carrying out improvements doesn’t promise recovery. However, staying static and not making any improvements for recovery will certainly bring no recovery at all.
It is expected that webmasters who’ve been making improvements to their sites since the last update will begin to see a substantial rise in their search engine rankings.
On the contrary, people who have left their sites unattended after the last core update are likely to see themselves outdone by sites featuring better content.
Predictions aside, again, it is going to take about a couple of weeks for this new update to unveil completely.
So, nothing much has changed as of now.To get to know things better, we’ll have to wait for the next update regarding the May 2022 core update straight from the horse’s mouth.
March 2022 Product Reviews Update
Google has confirmed the roll out of March 2022 Product Reviews Update, the third in a series of updates that started in 2021 which intends to reward websites that publish in-depth reviews based on true first-hand experience.
Today we’re launching the latest of our product reviews updates, designed to help ensure reviews come from people who demonstrate expert knowledge and first-hand research about products. Learn more: https://t.co/GU9GwZ1FpV
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) March 23, 2022
The official tweet of Google SearchLiaison reads, “Today we’re launching the latest of our product reviews updates, designed to help ensure reviews come from people who demonstrate expert knowledge and first-hand research about products.”
According to Google, templated reviews that just touch upon the periphery of products and services aren’t something that interests the users. However, multiple reviews of this kind have found top positions in Google search.
Even though Google doesn’t intend to penalize such reviews citing quality and thin content issues, the search engine giant says it definitely wants sites that publish quality reviews to get an edge as that’s the type of content users expect when searching online.
Google has been rolling out Product Review Update since 2021, with the first one making its appearance in April 2021, followed by another one in December the same year. The latest one is the third in this batch, and it does come with a few additional criteria for ranking.
Google confirms that the last two Product Review Updates were focused on giving a ranking boost to in-depth research-based reviews published by people who demonstrate expertise in the field (that’s indeed E-A-T). However, the March 2022 Product Review Update adds a few more criteria to be considered as authentic review, which includes:
- Depiction of the benefits or drawbacks of the product and how different it is when compared to its previous version.
- First-hand information from people who have physically or digitally used the product along with appropriate evidence that shows what it looks like and how to use it.
- The perspective of the reviewer about the product beyond what’s already provided by the manufacturer through visuals, audio, links.
- Give users a list of similar products and explain what makes the reviewed product stand out from the rest.
Google says the update will impact only English language queries, but they plan to expand it to more languages in the coming days.
This initiative from Google is again part of the overall vision of the search giant to help users get trustworthy and reliable information.
Talking about the rollout, it takes a week or two before it gets complete, and during this period, websites (mostly affiliate and review-based sites) may see volatility in the rankings.
Hit by Google’s product review update? Here is a checklist to help you trace what went wrong.
- Check if the products are reviewed by experts with a digital footprint in the field.
- Are you providing added value to the review by including the pros & cons that help users make an informed buying decision?
- Did you do a quantitative analysis where you put the product under various performance tests to measure how it performs?
- Did you compare the product with the ones already available in the market, and have you detailed what makes the product you reviewed unique?
- Have you talked about product improvements made when compared to the last version?
- Were you able to identify the highlight factors that make or break the deal?
- Did you use images, videos, graphs, or other evidence to back up your claims?
- Are you trying to over-promote one seller? If so, try to give users more buying options.
Page Experience Update for Desktop 2022
Google has begun rolling out the page experience update for desktop web pages and desktop search. This update will be rolled out during the next few weeks and completed by March-end, 2022.
This update will include all the present signals of the mobile version of the page experience update and outside of the page requiring to be more mobile-friendly. Google declared that all the page experience factors for mobile would be considered except mobile-friendliness. Below is a chart from Google showing the specific factors it’ll consider: What is Page Experience? There is a detailed developer document by Google on the page experience criteria. These metrics are meant to understand how users will perceive the experience of a specific webpage in terms of page loading time, mobile-friendliness, HTTP protocol, presence of intrusive ads, etc.
Page experience comprises several existing Google search ranking factors, such as the mobile-friendly update, HTTP ranking boost, page speed update, and intrusive interstitials penalty.
With this rollout and the new Google update, Google said not to expect drastic changes. In their own words, “While this update is designed to highlight pages that offer great user experiences, page experience remains one of many factors our systems take into account… Given this, sites generally should not expect drastic changes.”
Page Experience Update – Desktop Rollout Complete (March 3, 2022)
The page experience update finished rolling out to desktop search results, Google confirms. The update started rolling out for desktop on 22nd February and concluded on 3rd March, making it a 9-day rollout.
Comparatively, the page experience update on mobile took about two and a half months.
With Google confirming the conclusion of page experience update for desktop, you can now start measuring its impact on your search rankings.
Assessing The Impact of Desktop Page Experience Update
Any positive or negative shift in rankings occurring on or after 3rd March can be attributed to Google’s page experience update. To analyze if this is true, use Google tools to analyze your site’s page experience score.
Google Search Console has a dedicated report to evaluate Page Experience on the desktop version of web pages. Using this report, you can analyze how the Page Experience impacts your site.
If the report shows a majority of your pages in red or yellow, it’s possible that any ranking drop on March 3rd happened due to being negatively impacted by the page experience update. If you discover your website has poor page experience scores, find out why by looking at the criteria individually.
Desktop Page Experience Update Criteria
Google’s page experience update for desktop search includes several similar ranking factors as the algorithm launched on the mobile search last year. Desktop page experience ranking factors include:
- Core Web Vitals (LCP + CLS + FID)
- HTTPS Security
- Absence of intrusive interstitials
If your website fails to meet any of the above criteria, you will not benefit from the page experience ranking boost on desktop. However, a ranking drop doesn’t mean your site is penalized for not meeting Google’s page experience criteria.
It simply means sites meeting Google’s criteria might rank above you, causing your pages to rank lower. Therefore, improving your page experience score can help you regain those ranking positions.
Here is the page experience update you need to focus on:
- Is your site HTTPS? If yes, you can rule this out.
- Does your site have intrusive ads? If not, you can rule this out.
- Does your site pass Core Web Vitals thresholds? If you’re unsure, you’ll have to test it.
It’s crucial to note page experience isn’t everything. Ultimately, content relevance is important, but offering a good page experience also helps.
Page Experience Update for Desktop 2022
Google has begun rolling out the page experience update for desktop web pages and desktop search. This update will be rolled out during the next few weeks and completed by March-end, 2022.
This update will include all the present signals of the mobile version of the page experience update and outside of the page requiring to be more mobile-friendly. Google declared that all the page experience factors for mobile would be considered except mobile-friendliness. Below is a chart from Google showing the specific factors it’ll consider:
What is Page Experience? There is a detailed developer document by Google on the page experience criteria. These metrics are meant to understand how users will perceive the experience of a specific webpage in terms of page loading time, mobile-friendliness, HTTP protocol, presence of intrusive ads, etc.
Page experience comprises several existing Google search ranking factors, such as the mobile-friendly update, HTTP ranking boost, page speed update, and intrusive interstitials penalty.
With this rollout and the new Google update, Google said not to expect drastic changes. In their own words, “While this update is designed to highlight pages that offer great user experiences, page experience remains one of many factors our systems take into account… Given this, sites generally should not expect drastic changes.”
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Older Google Algorithm Updates: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2019, Other Updates Google Algorithm Update – December 2020 Core Update On December 17th, Google announced that the rollout of the December 2020 Broad Core update is finally over. The December 2020 Core Update rollout is complete. — Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) December 16, 2020 The announcement about the update came two weeks back … Google Algorithm Upate 2020
Google Algorithm Update 2021
Older Google Algorithm Updates: 2023, 2022, 2020, 2019, Other Updates Product Review Update December 2021 Google has launched the second product review update for 2021, and it’s intended to help websites that offer in-depth reviews that help users make an informed buying decision. Earlier, in April, Google had launched a similar update. Sites with shallow reviews that add no value … Google Algorithm Update 2021
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