Monday, April 27, 2020

Unpacking Google Fred Googles Latest Algorithm Change

In mid-March, some websites suddenly began to lose rankings and traffic. The search engine community quickly became awash in rumors of a new Google algorithm update. Now, it’s unofficially recognized as the latest major algorithm update: Google Fred. To understand if your website could be affected by these latest changes, here’s a look at Google Fred and how you can continue to stay on the right side of Google’s quality guidelines. What Exactly is Google Fred? On March 8, Google rolled out what appeared to be another major update. Google’s Gary Illyes jokingly referred to it as â€Å"Fred† and the name stuck, although this was not an â€Å"official† confirmation. The majority of sites affected are ones that are heavy on SEO tactics and ad monetization. In short, they’re websites created to benefit the site owner, not the end user. It’s the latest attempt by Google to penalize websites with low-value content that rely on adverts for revenue. What Are Ad-Heavy, Low-Value Content Sites? These sites are designed to attract lots of web traffic for the main purpose of getting visitors to click on ads or affiliate links. They usually feature lots of text-based, keyword-heavy content, surrounded by prominent ads or affiliate links. The majority of websites affected by Google Fred have one or more of the following: A large presence of ads or affiliate links throughout the content. Content covering a variety of topics created for ranking purposes. Low-quality, thin content with little research behind it. Deceptive ads that look like website content. User experience barriers. The online marketing community has analyzed various websites to measure the impact of Google Fred. Search Engine Land’s News Editor Barry Schwartz reported a 50-90% drop in organic search traffic on sites he tested. While these low-quality sites are suffering, websites that offer high-quality content with unobtrusive ads may have actually noticed an increase in traffic after the Fred update. How Do I Know if My Website is Affected by Google Fred? The first thing you can do is check Google Analytics, or use software like Moz or SEMRush to track your website statistics. If you see a significant drop in page rankings or organic traffic around the middle of March then you were probably affected. How to Recover from Google Fred To increase the quality of your website content and avoid Google Fred penalties, here are some steps to take: Review the placement of ads on your website. If they’re not relevant to the page content, replace them with ones that are or remove them altogether. Look at the content across your site and make sure that it offers real value to users. Are certain keywords repeated? Update the content to make it more informative and natural-sounding. Browse your site as if you were a visitor. Is it easy to navigate from page to page? Are there too many ads that are annoying or distracting? Remove them. Check Google Analytics to see what search queries your visitors are using, then write more specific content that matches these search queries. However, avoid creating multiple web pages that cover the same topic. Create more ‘non-profit’ content. Make sure you create original content that is useful for your niche audience. Offer tips, review similar products and publish buying guides that provide a great deal of value. If you have ads, this will help to improve the ad versus natural content ratio. Include other forms of content across your site such as videos, infographics, photos and illustrations. Focus on the Big Picture The Google Fred update hasn’t been bad news for everybody. Many sites have seen an increase in rankings and traffic. However, if you have been negatively affected by Google Fred, the suggestions above can help. Then, keep an eye on your analytics. Recovery can take time, so you won’t be able to regain your traffic all at once. Above all, focus on delivering quality content that gives your visitors the information they want.