2 builders who never spoke to each other

Rule out the boring causes before blaming an update

When rankings fall, check Search Console messages for an actual penalty, look at the live results in case a new feature is taking the click without your position moving, and ask whether you shipped a structural change around the same date. Keep a fixed panel of competitor domains measured through every update. Expanding the copy on a sunk page has recovered rankings within weeks.

The method

1. 01

   Look at the live search results for your top terms before blaming a ranking drop: new result types can push you down the page or take the click without your position changing.

2. 02

   Set up Google Search Console before anything else and read the messages section, so you can rule out an actual penalty before assuming an algorithm update cost you traffic.

3. 03

   Check whether you shipped a big structural change around the same date as the update, and confirm you have not made the site uncrawlable or stripped navigation links to the pages you want ranked.

4. 04

   Keep a fixed panel of competitor domains and measure all of them through every algorithm update, refreshing the panel periodically so newly risen sites get added.

5. 05

   If a search algorithm update sinks your rankings, try substantially expanding the copy on the ranking page before assuming the loss is permanent.

What it returned

• 10,000

  Detailed built its panel from the top domains ranking across 10,000 keyphrases, deliberately excluding the large publisher groups, and grew it from 165 to 188 independent affiliate sites by rechecking the same keyphrases for top-500 domains that were not there before.

• Elements named: featured snippets, video carousels and People Also Ask boxes. The effect is largest when a handful of pages carried most of your search traffic.

• Glen Allsopp says a manual warning is very unlikely even on sites whose search traffic fell sharply, but it is worth eliminating first.

• Examples given of changes that coincide with core updates: moving from insecure to secure hosting, and reworking internal linking.

Sources

• August 2023 Core Google Algorithm Update Analysis - DetailedGlen Allsopp · detailed.com · Analysing Who Thrived Month over Month and Year over Year · 2018-05-22
• The Horse Finally Learns to FlyCory Zue · coryzue.com · Revenue · 2019-07-01