A How question

How does an SEO company handle algorithm updates?

3 min read Cites 2 sources

In proportion to what the data shows. The company confirms when an update started and finished, compares your figures across the right dates, judges whether a drop is small or large, and responds to match: a small drop is left alone, a large and lasting one leads to an assessment of the whole site. It avoids quick fixes, treats deleting content as a last resort, and tells you plainly that recovery after an update can take months. Google’s guide to core updates and your website sets out this process, and a company’s approach should follow it.

Knowing what changed and when

Google lists its announced ranking updates, with start and end dates, on its Search Status Dashboard. Those dates are the frame for any analysis. Not every change is listed, though. The core updates guide explains: “We’re continually making updates to our search algorithms, including smaller core updates. These updates are not announced because they aren’t widely noticeable”. A movement that matches no announced update is therefore not proof that nothing changed at Google, and a movement that does match one is not proof that the update caused it. The company has to rule out the site’s own causes as well: a release that broke something, a change in tracking, or a seasonal pattern.

Reading the impact

Google’s guidance is to wait until an update has finished rolling out, allow a week, and then compare a week after it with a week before it began. The comparison is done by page and by query, and the guide suggests looking at different search types separately, such as web results, images, video, and news, because a drop may sit in only one of them.

The size of the drop decides the next step. For a small drop, the guide’s example being a fall from position 2 to 4, it says: “There’s no need to take drastic action (in fact, we recommend avoiding making changes to content that’s already performing well).” For a large one, its example being a fall from 4 to 29, it calls for a deeper assessment of whether the site as a whole, not only individual pages, offers helpful, reliable content, and suggests asking people unaffiliated with the site to review it as well.

Responding to a large drop

The guide warns against quick fixes, such as removing a page element because of something heard about SEO, and favors changes that make sense for users over the long term: rewriting or restructuring content so it is easier to read and use, and comparing the affected pages with pages that serve the same searcher better. On removal it is direct: “Deleting content is a last resort, and only to be considered if you think the content can’t be salvaged.”

How long recovery takes

Google does not promise a quick return. The guide says: “some changes can take effect in a few days, but it could take several months for our systems to learn and confirm that the site as a whole is now producing helpful, reliable, people-first content in the long term.” It adds: “If it’s been a few months and you still haven’t seen any effect, that could mean waiting until the next core update.” A company that promises recovery by a date is promising something Google itself does not.

How the company should respond when an update lands

Expect to hear from the company when an update affecting your market rolls out, to see your figures set against its dates, and to get a response sized to the drop: no change for a small one, a written assessment and plan for a large one. Expect it to say when a change in your figures has a cause on your own site rather than at Google, and to avoid sudden changes made on rumor.

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