Know your site. That’s how you stay ahead of algorithm updates
0Reported today on Search Engine Land
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Know your site. That's how you stay ahead of algorithm updates
SAN JOSE - "Google's looking at you and wondering, who are you, what are you doing, what is your purpose?"
That's the viewpoint of Mordy Oberstein, CMO of RankRanger, who discussed during his session at SMX West in San Jose how establishing and staying true to your site's identity can help future-proof it against Google search algorithm updates.
"For example, if you're a health information site, are you really about offering me health information or are you trying to push something underneath the surface? Are you actually a covert commerce site?"
What to watch for
Google's core algorithm updates generate a lot of rankings volatility; but unconfirmed updates may also have a noticeable impact on rankings, Oberstein said.
During his session, Oberstein shared data suggesting that one of the distinctions between core updates and unconfirmed updates is how much they affect rankings for Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) sites, as well as how much they sway the top three search results.
Oberstein analyzed sites that were hit hard by algorithm updates and observed a pattern of inconsistent content and messaging that might cause users to question the site's true purpose.
Identity = Authority
"You go to a website and you look at the page, the UI, the UX, the images, everything. What signals does this page send to the user? Well, now Google's picking up on a lot of those latent messages," Oberstein said, adding that when Google profiles your site, it is evaluating everything from your content to your CTAs to your ads to find out more about your site's identity.
"Singular identity equals authority," Oberstein said. Much in the same way a patient