The latest Google core algorithm update, rolled out in August, has had a significant impact on various websites, particularly those still recovering from the brutal September 2023 Helpful Content Update (HCU). As the digital landscape continues to evolve, understanding the implications of these updates and how to navigate them has become crucial for webmasters and SEO professionals alike.
The Impact of the Google Updates
Several websites, including HouseFresh, ThatFitFriend, and GuitarChalk, have experienced dramatic recoveries after the August update. The common strategy among these sites was the systematic removal of low-performing pages. This approach appears to be in direct response to a new ranking factor Google has prioritized: the proportion of a website's content that attracts low or zero traffic.
Since last year, Google has increasingly flagged websites that host many low-value pages. This shift makes sense in light of the increasing volume of AI-generated content flooding the web. According to EarthWeb, a staggering 7.5 million blog posts are published daily, overwhelming Google's resources. As a result, Google has resorted to more efficient ways of detecting and filtering out spam, including a high-level scan that identifies websites with a significant amount of useless content.
How Google Identifies and Penalizes Unhelpful Content
In Google's documentation on helpful content, it is stated that their systems automatically identify content with little value or low added value, which is not particularly helpful to users. Interestingly, there seems to be a contradiction within Google's guidance: while one document suggests that penalties apply site-wide, another indicates that their core ranking systems work on a page level. However, for those affected by the HCU, it is clear that the penalty is indeed site-wide. When this update hits a website, all of its pages are typically affected, not just specific ones.
Given this, the recommended recovery strategy is to remove content that Google deems unhelpful. Google's own documentation suggests that doing so can help improve the rankings of other, more valuable content on the site.
Strategies for Recovering from Google Penalties
James Dooley of FatRank, a successful SEO professional, has developed a process for identifying and dealing with underperforming pages, which has been proven to significantly boost traffic. His method involves using Google Search Console to identify pages with low clicks over the past 12 months and then either redirecting, updating, or deleting these pages.
The process begins with exporting data from Google Search Console and filtering it to focus on the pages with the least traffic. Pages that have received fewer than 30 clicks, or those that do not align with the main topics of the website, are marked for removal. Exceptions are made for essential pages like category, product, or checkout pages.
Once low-performing pages are identified, Dooley recommends using 301 redirects to point these pages to more relevant content. This approach not only helps preserve any link equity from the removed pages but also consolidates content, making the remaining pages stronger in terms of SEO.
Comparing Approaches: Content Pruning vs. Content Updating
While content pruning (removing or redirecting underperforming pages) has proven effective, it is not the only approach. The Search Initiative, an SEO agency, employs a similar process but with a key difference. For clients who are hesitant to delete pages due to the investment made in creating them, the agency offers content updating as an alternative. If a page has potential, refreshing and improving the content can sometimes recover its performance. However, if the page has no backlinks or significant value, it may still be best to delete it and allow it to return a 404 error.
The ultimate goal, whether through pruning or updating, is to reduce the number of low-value pages and increase the proportion of quality content on the site. This not only aligns with Google's current priorities but also helps improve the overall performance and ranking of the website.
As Google's algorithms continue to evolve, so too must the strategies employed by webmasters and SEO professionals. The August core algorithm update and the September 2023 Helpful Content Update have highlighted the importance of maintaining a high standard of content quality across an entire website. By systematically removing or improving low-performing content, websites can recover from penalties and improve their standing in search rankings.
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