Over the last week, there has been a lot of noise about possible Google algorithm update. Thanks to the unique trackers we have here at JJHF/Designs, we’ve seen substantial average ranking shifts across a number of websites.

This algorithm update seems to be a more significant update, based on many of the metrics we are tracking. Google’s aim with these updates is to improve the overall quality of the search results provided to searchers.

Google’s present counsel on this refresh is that website admins don’t have to roll out any specialized improvements to their sites. Actually, the organization said “no fix” is required and that it is gone for advancing locales that were once underestimated. Google has said that you should keep on looking routes at improving your general site and give far and away superior quality substance and encounters to your site guests.

So give this a couple of more days to completely take off and perceive how the residue makes due with your site’s positioning in Google.

Google’s Official Statement

The purpose of Google’s official statement was to communicate four insights:

1. Confirmation that an algorithm update happened.

2. Confirmation that this is a major algorithm update.

3. Communicate that the change was to improve how Google matches relevant results to search queries.

4. Sites that lost rankings did not lose rankings because of poor quality.

Here is Google’s official statement:

This week we released a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. Our guidance about such updates remains the same as in March, as we covered here: https://t.co/uPlEdSLHoX

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) August 1, 2018

Google’s Follow-up Statements

Google’s Danny Sullivan followed up with an additional statement to answer a question asking for more specifics.  Danny Sullivan declined to issue specific guidance on what to fix. And really, how could he when Google insists there is nothing to fix?

Sullivan’s first follow-up statement:

We tell lots of things to do. Improve site speed. Consider secure. Etc. But that’s not what this update was about. It’s broad. And respectfully, I think telling people there’s no particular thing to “fix” is indeed helpful. It means, hopefully, they think more broadly…

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) August 1, 2018

His second:

Want to do better with a broad change? Have great content. Yeah, the same boring answer. But if you want a better idea of what we consider great content, read our raters guidelines. That’s like almost 200 pages of things to consider: https://t.co/pO3AHxFVrV

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) August 1, 2018

Third:

To be really clear, it doesn’t work like that. Raters have no direct input into the algorithm. There’s no “rater score” or anything like that about the sample of pages they review.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) August 2, 2018

Fourth:

The data helps us understand how updates seem to be performing. It’s like having someone review the food in your restaurant. But they don’t go into the kitchen & make the food. Rater data isn’t a component of the algorithm.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) August 2, 2018

There’s Nothing to Do – So What Should You Do?

Over the course of almost 20 years experience of updates from many search engines, including Google, the best reaction has remained consistent: Wait.

The reason I say wait is because virtually every major update has been followed with a correction, what Google calls a refresh.

As far back as I remember, virtually every major update had false positives or were overly broad. Google then improves the algorithm in order reduce the number of false positives.

Here is what you should be doing:

• If you see a bad search result, study it. Try to understand why an irrelevant web page is at the top.

• If your site dropped in rankings, wait. The search results may change. The change may come in days. Sometimes the biggest changes happen in ten to fifteen days.

• If your site dropped rankings, study the top performers. Try to understand why users may feel that site is more relevant. This will give you insight into how the algorithm may have changed.

Remember, it’s not your site that’s done something wrong. Study the SERPs and try to identify why Google thinks that a user may prefer a top ranked site.