A Simple Explaination of Googles Core Update For June 2019

The monopoly of search is without a doubt a worrisome issue, as the world turns to the internet for more goods and services Google still remains the gateway for the vast majority of internet users. This means businesses who rely on the internet traffic for their livelihood are at the mercy of any search ranking update that may wildly adjust the pecking order.

It seems like a lifetime ago SEO's and Webmasters were crying out after updates like Hummingbird, Panda and Penguin hit sites across the world. Google has positioned its search updates in a way as not to disrupt the flow of traffic in recent years, until this month.

Googles' latest update has caused quite a stir in the publishing community with The Daily Mail And CCN having to sustain losses of around 50% on their traffic while a few eCommerce and lead generation sites were also affected. Twitter has been abuzz with SEO's and Webmasters sharing their gains and losses from the update but what did this update actually do and why have their been drastic winners and losers?

While I personally love using the technical jargon I will try to keep this explanation as simple and easy to understand as possible, so forgive me if I let an industry buzz word or two slip through.

June 2019 core update & diversity update

In the space of 5 days, Google has changed its ranking algorithm starting on June 3rd and finishing up on the 8th. Considering the size of Googles index we can assume these effects take some time to roll out and take effect.

An emphasis on quality

Google's latest core update will continue to place more focus on high-quality content and determine if searches are research-based or transaction based and attributing the correct results. Content on pages cannot simply be filler content looking to improve rankings but make actual contextual sense as to what it provides the reader with.

Depending on the use of the page, the content will need to match its exact feature or goal, for example.  

• To provide information 
• Require you to input your details
• Require a transaction
• Download a file or application

More diverse Google results

Searchers, along with SEOs, have complained over the years that Google has had a bias of showing too many listings for the top search results from the same domain name. What this means is that many search results have often seen 4 or 5 of the top ten results from the same domain name and giving other sites less opportunity to compete.

Google is looking to not show more than two results from the same domain with this search update.

Google said,

“A new change now launching in Google Search is designed to provide more site diversity in our results.”

Google added,

“This site diversity change means that you usually won’t see more than two listings from the same site in our top results.”

The exception to the diversity rule

Google said it does reserve the right to show more than two results from the same domain name when it thinks it is appropriate.

“However, we may still show more than two in cases where our systems determine it’s especially relevant to do so for a particular search,” Google wrote.

Which we suspect is related to branded queries, so if you are searching for a brand, like Amazon, you likely will see more than just two results from amazon.com listed in the search results.

Sub-domains

Google will generally treat sub-domains as part of the main domain. So if you have blog.domain.com, it will be considered part of the main www.domain.com domain and count towards the two results.

Google said

“Site diversity will generally treat subdomains as part of a root domain. IE: listings from subdomains and the root domain will all be considered from the same single site.”

Of course, Google reserves the right to treat some subdomains differently,

“However, subdomains are treated as separate sites for diversity purposes when deemed relevant to do so,” Google wrote.

How should sites approach the new update

The new update changes very little in terms of the daily life of an SEO who follows best practices and for those creating high-quality content. However, for those creating autogenerated pages, user-generated content pages, low-quality variant pages, orphaned pages that were generating traffic to sites, you should see a dramatic drop. 

My advice to sites that have been hit would be to look at indexing only the highest quality content and taking great care when rolling out pages to ensure that they serve a purpose that is superior to any of your competitors.

Block auto-generated pages

If your site spits out autogenerated pages based on tags or internal search queries you may want to block this either via robots.txt, URL parameters or no-index tags, whichever works best for your site. You can also use a canonical tag to top-level pages should you're internal usage of these pages still hold value for your site.

Review content on landing pages

Your high-level landing pages need to speak to a specific use, this should be educational with the intent of pushing them into your conversion funnel while different language and keyword targetting should be used for mid-funnel content should be used on pages request user interaction other than a click through.

Ensure variant pages have unique content

If you're site hosts pages targetting variants like geolocations, languages, archetypes etc. Ensure that your content is unique speaks to the targeted audience and provides helpful resources catered specifically to that user's intent.

Tell us your SEO story

Have you been frustrated with SEO for your business? How did you or the company overcome it? Were you hit by the latest update? Are there any tips you would like to share on improving your reports? Share it with us in the comments.

Contact us

If you would like us to improve the SEO for your site or want to know more about digital marketing for your business, then don’t be shy we’re happy to assist. Simply contact us

Are you looking to promote your business?

South African Business owners can create your free business listing on nichemarket. The more information you provide about your business, the easier it will be for your customers to find you online. Registering with nichemarket is easy; all you will need to do is head over to our sign up form and follow the instructions.

If you require a more detailed guide on how to create your profile or your listing, then we highly recommend you check out the following articles. 

• How to create a nichemarketer profile 
• How to create a nichemarket business listing 

Recommended reading

If you enjoyed this post and have a little extra time to dive deeper down the rabbit hole, why not check out the following posts on SEO and search updates.

• Google Launches Neural Matching Algorithm
• Is Pushing Live Too Many Pages Risky For SEO
• Why Ranking #1 Does Not Always Equal Improved Leads or Sales
• 10 Reasons Why Your Site Doesn't Rank For *Insert Keyword*
• Google Trial More Related Searches On Mobile
• Google Launches Expandable Featured Snippets

Tags: SEO, search engine optimisation