SEO Updates in the last 6 months : A compilation
Google Algorithm and SEO updates
Google’s ranking systems and algorithm function in a complex way to sort through billions of web pages and other content in their search index to present the most useful and relevant results in the blink of an eye.
Google now makes thousands of changes to its algorithms each year. We can ignore a lot of these as they can have minimal impact but there are major algorithmic updates released too, we must be aware of these changes because they have a big impact on the SERPs. In this list, we will be discussing the confirmed updates in the last 6 months.
1. Google April 2023 Reviews Update
Date – Started on April 12, 2023 and ended on April 25, 2023.
The April 2023 reviews update refers to the ‘Review systems’ algorithm of Google that checks webpages which are recommendations of products, services, games, movies and so on. The official guidance on this algorithm says that the reviews system is designed to evaluate articles, blog posts, pages and such first-party standalone content written to provide recommendations, opinions or analyses. It doesn’t evaluate third-party reviews.
Google has written a guide on how to go about writing a good quality review so it’s an essential reading for anyone that wants to know how to rank better in SERPs. The gist of the guide suggests that in-depth research will be preferred over thin content that just summarizes products, services and other things.
2. March 2023 Core Update
Date – Started on March 15, 2023 and ended on March 28, 2023.
The March 2023 Core update was for better identification of quality content by Google. Key points after the launch of this update were:
- Significant volatility on both desktop and mobile SERPs but particularly true for dictionary sites.
- Quite a few aggregators suffered because of this update.
- The Music and entertainment sector benefitted from this update.
- Niche sites demonstrating real experiences did well.
3. February 2023 Product Reviews Update
Date – Started on February 21, 2023 and ended on March 7, 2023.
The February 2023 product reviews update was to reward high-quality, in-depth product reviews. The update makes a reference that it’s rolling out to eleven languages:
- Dutch
- English
- French
- German
- Indonesian
- Italian
- Polish
- Portuguese
- Russian
- Spanish
- Vietnamese
4. December 2022 Link Spam Update
Date – Started on December 14, 2022 and ended on January 12, 2023.
The December 2022 link spam update was to make improvements to SpamBrain, Google’s AI-based spam prevention system. This improved Google’s ability to not only detect spam but also to identify sites that buy and sell links for SEO purposes more effectively. Sites that benefitted from these black hat SEO tactics in the past were to suffer a drop in their rankings as Google identifies and neutralizes such unnatural links.
5. December 2022 Helpful Content Update
Date – Started on December 5, 2022 and ended on January 12, 2023.
The December 2022 helpful content update was aimed at weeding out content created solely for the purpose of SEO rankings – content which is not created for people. Google said it had also made changes to the E-A-T concept (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), which now becomes E-E-A-T, the additional ‘E’ stands for ‘Experience’. This was done to reward creators who produced content demonstrating first-hand, life experience on the topic at hand.
Google said that they hope these updates better capture the nuances of how people look for information and the diversity of quality information that exists in the world.
Conclusion
I would like to conclude by thanking you for reading through the post. We will continue to bring you the latest on Google algorithm and any SEO updates as and when they happen!