Google announced its latest algorithm update last week. Through Google Search Liaison on Twitter, the search engine confirmed the June 2019 Core Update was live and rolling out to various data centers on June 3. The previous day, Google had pre-announced the update by saying it would release a broad core algorithm update as it does several times per year, and its guidance about this latest update remains the same as it has covered in the past.
The guidance noted that each day, Google usually releases one or more changes designed to improve our results. Most have little noticeable change but help us continue to incrementally improve search. But one week after this most recent update was announced, it appears this Google algorithm update is having a wider and more impactful effect than some of its predecessors.
“The gambling niche was hit hard, as were the health and finance niches (though the update was/is impactful across the board),” Mordy Oberstein from RankRanger told Search Engine Land recently.
We will not have a full understanding of this Google algorithm update for at least a few more weeks. But at Kuno Creative, we have already seen significant keyword movement for at least one client in the sectors reportedly impacted by the update during the first week of its implementation. In this case, there were dramatic drops in rankings for high-volume keywords that were previously driving significant organic traffic in as recently as May.
For this client, we saw several keywords that were ranking No. 1 in May go to not ranking at all as of June 10. We also saw a 26 percent drop in keywords ranking in the top 100 overall during that same time period.
According to Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Land, this algorithm update seems to be focused on generating more diverse Google results.
“Searchers, along with SEOs, have complained over the years that sometimes Google shows too many listings for the top search results from the same domain name,” wrote Schwartz. “So if you do a search for a particular query, you may see four or five of the top 10 results from the same domain name. Google is looking to not show more than two results from the same domain with this search update.”
Our initial SEO strategy in response to the latest Google Algorithm update is to optimize for current-month striking distance keywords on the pages that were negatively impacted as much as possible. If there are relevant keywords still ranking No. 10, 11 or 12 after the update, for example, we are focusing our attention there first. This should begin to supplement the organic traffic that will be lost from the No. 1 ranking keywords that dropped out of the top 100 entirely.
After implementing those striking distance SEO optimizations, we then selectively target the relevant No. 1 rankings that were lost next. At the same time, we also recommend creating content around new keyword opportunities that you haven’t ranked for previously while following Google’s best practices to start opening up new streams of relevant organic traffic moving forward.
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