You're not alone if you saw your ranks drop drastically in March 2017. The new Google algorithm update, Fred, targeted black hat SEO practices and large ad monetization tactics. The consensus is that most websites affected tend to be sites with large ads used for monetization with the page not focused on solving a user’s problem through high-quality content. Many sites saw a 90% decrease in traffic. Websites most affected had some or all these problems:
• Thin and low-quality content.
• Low-quality backlinks.
• Certain ads.
• Keyword stuffing.
• Lead generation and revenue.
As a demand acceleration agency with clients across multiple industries, we've seen the impact of positive and negative algorithmic changes since we started SEO operations in 2005. We've seen site migrations, revamps, mergers and acquisitions, algorithmic changes, business practices and more impact the organic performance. In responding to the aftermath of Fred or any future update, recovery is possible if you keep the following in mind:
1. Visually appealing web design: Your website needs to be appealing and easy to navigate for the target audience -- not just for search engine robots. How do you achieve visual appeal when aesthetics can be subjective? Would it be surprising if one said that visual appeal can be (and should be) measured? Measuring visual appeal and insights should inform visual design. Here’s how to do it:
• Heat mapping and click tracking can provide data on how your visitors engage with your design and what they do or don't find appealing.
• Defining your target audience persona and identifying visual preferences on other sites they frequent can provide quantifiable data on preferences.
• A/B and multivariate testing can provide statistically significant data on what your visitors prefer.
Search engines want you to deliver a high-quality experience to your audience and will reward your site if visitors are wowed.
2. High-quality content: High word count or keyword density doesn’t necessarily make for quality content. Your content should always be relevant -- regardless of the word count -- and provide value.
• Create original, unique content. Don’t write similar content repeatedly around the same topics. Google often devalues content of the same nature and will choose which one to rank.
• Create content that is driven by searcher intent, gives clear, concise answers and is unique to the target audience.
• Use a website auditing tool to analyze ranking content to figure out what drives traffic to your website. Keep an eye on metrics that count, such as bounce rate and time on page.
• Tag pages offer little value. Removing these pages may help recover traffic after this update.
• Create nonprofit content. Incorporate pages that are in your industry, not just commercial or monetary pages. Content that engages users and resonates with the reader is an asset even without profit. Shared infographics and evergreen content builds a following and, in return, can increase your authority.
• Video is a form of content. With popularity growing, it is essential to jump on the video bandwagon. Produce and transcribe videos into text to help increase value to search engines. YouTube can act as an alternate traffic generator.
• Leverage social media to your advantage. Social followings are the quickest way to gain authority from real people liking and sharing your content.
3. Monitor website traffic: By keeping an eye on analytics, you can understand how these updates affect your site rank and traffic. If you see unusual changes in your ranks or traffic, make adjustments accordingly. There are a number of tools to use to track and segment website traffic. The most common and popular among them include:
• Google Analytics or Google Analytics Premium, if your website gets an extremely large number of visitors
• Adobe Analytics Cloud
• Piwik
• Kissmetrics
• Open Web Analytics
• Clicky Analytics
4. Ad audit: Check your ad ratio. While Google doesn’t provide a best practice on the ratio of advertisements to content, there is information on Google’s Page Layout Algorithm, which evaluates and penalizes pages if they are deemed to have excessive advertising and little value. If your ads seem intrusive or stuffed into your content, you may have too many.
• Ad placement: Do not let the ad distract the user or change the user’s experience.
• Ads with dofollow: Stay away from black hat practices and links with dofollow. Keep your ads at nofollow.
5. Quality backlinks: Keep an eye on irrelevant sites that are linked to your site. Ask to be removed or use the Google Disavow Tool to avoid a penalty. Make sure you use a link audit software to keep track of backlinks from other sites.
Other Google Guidelines Violations
Google has stated that the majority of the sites adversely impacted by algorithm updates aren't following Google webmaster guidelines. Make sure you're compliant:
• Do you use automatically generated content?
• Do you participate in link schemes?
• Does your content have plagiarized or non-original content?
• Is cloaking an issue?
• Do you have doorway pages?
• Does your site feature scraped content?
• Does your affiliate program add value?
• Are you using irrelevant keywords?
Content And Google Compliance Recovery
Google rarely announces when it is going to throw out an update, but releases them on a regular basis. Continuously evaluate your site and know where it stands to avoid penalization.
Ask yourself these questions during the evaluation process:
• Is your content high-quality or just mediocre? Would you share this content if you were a user?
• Do you have a lot of affiliate links or ads?
• Are your calls to action overused?
• Is your content solving a user’s problems? Is it targeted toward user intent?
The best advice is to improve user experience first. Keep your website user- and navigation-friendly, and optimize all platforms. Use schema markups and create a good site architecture. Stay updated with Google algorithm changes, and prevent your site from landing in the statistics of black hat practices by staying on top.
