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Google Announces June 2021 Core Algorithm Update-What You Can Do

Google rolled a Core Algorithm Update on June 2nd 2021. As mentioned in the announcement, Google will release another update in July 2021. It took Google 6 months to release the latest update. The last core update was launched in December 2020.

Being in the digital marketing landscape and dealing with hundreds of businesses, I get to see the trends quickly. When the Core Algorithm was announced on June 2, most of our clients didn’t see much change in their keyword rankings, but within four days, many businesses started noticing a drastic change; some of them saw good improvements in search results while some of them noticed a dip in rankings.

First things first…

What is in the June 2021 Core Update

Google’s core updates are designed to improve the quality and relevance of search results. In a core update, the search giant makes changes to its ranking process and that affects a large number of indexed web pages.

Some of the factors that can help you stay at the top of core updates are:

• Core Web Vitals: Improve your page experience signals, including the three Core Web Vitals metrics: Large Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).

• E-A-T: Make sure to provide content that shows Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
Google Webmaster Guidelines:

Websites that follow Google’s webmaster guidelines and keep the site and content updated all the time will gain from core updates.

Two-Part Updates

Why two-part updates? Many marketers wanted to know why Google is releasing two updates within a time span of one month.

Google said it originally wanted to pack more changes into June 2021 update, but not all updates are ready yet. So the next rollout is in July 2021.

Google’s Danny Sullivan states on Twitter:

“Some of our planned improvements for the June 2021 update aren’t quite ready, so we’re moving ahead with the parts that are, then we will follow with the rest with the July 2021 update.

Most sites won’t notice either of these updates, as is typical with any core updates.”

Reshuffling of SERP Rankings with the June’21 Update

Many brands and marketers are seeing site ranking changes with the June 2021 core update. No need to panic as yet. If your site rankings have dropped, you may see a reversal or shift with the July 2021 core update.

And, if your site is seeing good improvements with the June 2021 update, it might show a negative impact again next month. Not all updates are equal. But when Google releases Core Algorithm Update, changes are quite noticeable.

Google has also said that it will be releasing another page experience update in mid-June. It may not have a large impact on search rankings but you can expect to see some changes.

Sullivan continues:
“Of course, any core update can produce drops or gains for some content. Because of the two-part nature of this release, it’s possible a very small slice of content might see changes in June that reverse in July.

As a reminder, nothing in a core update is site-specific.”

What Top SERP Ranking Trackers Have Analyzed

SEMRush Team: According to the SEMrush ranking tracker, both desktop and mobile search results saw changes in terms of volatility. The top five categories have been affected by the June 2021 Update are health, autos, pets and animals, science, and travel.

RankRanger: This site found the June 2021 update to cause more in fluctuations in the top five results than the 2020 December Update.

Sistrix: The company’s CEO says, “The gains or losses with this Core Update are somewhat lower, so far, than with other updates in the past. There are indications that Google is using new metrics/algorithms and is therefore proceeding cautiously with the first rollout.”

The SEO community: I went through the chatter in the Search Engine Land and found many SEO marketers complaining about ranking and traffic drops.

But there are always winners and losers when it comes to Google Core Updates. At least 25% of marketers said that they have seen significant improvements in their sites.

What you can do if your site has been impacted by this core update?

Google releases core updates to make the top search results more relevant to the users. So what you can do if your site has been impacted by this recent update?

Step 1: Verify Using Analytics and Google Search Console

Use SERP tracking tools to verify if your site rankings have dropped. Analyze the old ranking, their new ranking, the difference, the URL that was ranking, and the content type that was ranking earlier.

Step 2: Analyze Website Changes

If you have made big changes to your website just before the June 2021 update, you may see big fluctuations in your rankings. This is normal. But keep an eye on your SERP rankings every day to see if rankings are going further down or improving.

Step 3: Make Content Changes

Make sure to update the content by adding more relevance and authoritativeness. The update will not affect your links. So make changes to your blog and website content based on the search relevance.

Also, check specifically for changes in your meta tags, descriptions and titles.

Step 4: Check Technical Issues & Backlinks

If Google sees issues in crawling and indexing your site, your site rankings will drop after the June 2021 update. Check your site to find if there are crawling anomalies and load time. Also, find out if you lost valuable backlinks and work on building more.

Step 5: Check Competitors and Search Intent

Check if your competitors are going up or down with the update. If your competition is working hard on content and other aspects of their site, it could be playing a role in your ranking drop.

The search intent has changed a lot since the pandemic hit the world. Make sure you are following that user intent and including them in your content.

Conclusion

Google heavily relies on machine learning to improve its search results based on the user intent and queries. You will have to play by the rules, you may lose the battle.

Follow the aforementioned steps if your site is showing a drastic drop in rankings. At this point, it makes sense to hire expert help as well. Hire an SEO consultant and digital marketing company to help you win the core update battle.

About the Author

Naveen Gupta

Naveen Gupta is the founder and CEO of Fuel4Media Technologies. He has been awarded as the 25 Most Influential Mobile Marketing Leaders and 100 Smartest Digital Marketing Leaders by World Digital Marketing Congress.

Fuel4Media is India’s one of the fastest growing Digital Marketing company, Mobile App Development and Mobile App Marketing Company. His forte lies in developing and executing innovative mobile and web technologies, digital marketing and mobile marketing strategies, and everything related to digital.

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