​Google's Next Update: How to Prepare Your Site

Submitted by;Jennifer Daly
​Jennifer Daly is an SEO specialist that blogs about everything from keyword research, to local SEO and link building strategies.

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​Google is an ever-evolving search engine that is constantly being tweaked and changed. Each year, the algorithm that powers the world’s most popular search engine is changed up to 600 times! These small changes can sometimes go by unnoticed, but in other cases it shifts the rules of SEO and the search results significantly.
 
Website owners should always be on top of the latest trends and prepare themselves for the next update. Today I’ll show you what you should be doing before, during, and after Google’s next big update. 

​Google’s Next Major Update: Before, During, and After 

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​Google’s focus as a company is to provide the best answers to your questions. No matter what you ask, they want to immediately deliver the best possible solution. Doing this requires an incredibly complex algorithm and constant changes to meet the ever-changing needs of people.

The last major update was called “Penguin” and it’s been slowly rolling out since 2011. The fact of the matter, is that these updates can drastically affect a website’s traffic and ultimately its revenue. Business owners who didn’t prepare for the last big update were furious when their main source of income suddenly stopped producing.
 
While that is an extreme situation, it shows how important it is to always be vigilant in how your website is performing and what Google is planning for the future. Let’s take a look at how you can prepare for the next big update. ​

Before The Update 

We’re fortunate that Google has been doing updates for so long, because this gives us a basis for how they make changes and what we can do to make sure we have a strong baseline for the new update.
 
One thing that will never change, is the focus on high-quality content. Hiring amateur writers for pennies on the dollar to write posts on your new blog used to work for producing content, but that’s not the case anymore. Instead, you need to ensure your content meets these standards:
 
●Write for people, not search engines. Use keywords, but make sure it’s easy to read and understand as a human being.
●Never copy someone else’s work. Adapt it, make it your own, or further the subject.
●Make sure you don’t have a ton of ads above the fold to the point where they are obscuring content.
●When publishing content, your minimum word count should be 500 words.
●Include relevant images and video to add additional value to your content.
 
If you’re in doubt as to the quality of your content, check your Google Analytics. Here you’ll find a metric that shows how long people stay on your pages. If that time is low, then you may need to polish it up.
 
Next up, you should ensure that you’re not making any of these mistakes that Google will treat as spam:
 
●Don’t overstuff your content with keywords
●Do not appeal for backlinks from low quality or irrelevant sites
●Don’t go to forums or comments solely for backlinks
●Only accept high-quality guest posts and don’t approve comments with spammy links

​Don’t overload your social media accounts 

During The Update 

​The main thing you should be doing as the update rolls out is monitoring every aspect of your website. This includes, but is not limited to the following:
 
●Traffic levels from devices and referrals
●Bounce rates and time spent on the site
●SERP rankings for all your main keywords and long-tail variations (compared to before the update)
●Conversion rates and total revenue
●Look at your competition to see if anything happened to them. If not, emulate their changes
 
In addition to these things, you should constantly monitor any news from Google about the update, or from reputable sources. A great way to do this, is to set up Google Alerts surrounding the name of the update and any major changes it’s bringing to the table.
 
When these topics or keywords are mentioned, you will get an email with curated content to keep you in the loop. This will ensure you can react as needed when changes are being shown. 

​After The Update 

Once the dust has settled, continue making small changes as needed and adhere to the new standards across all of your websites and pages. During this time, start doing research into new trends in marketing and social media. These will offer valuable insight into future updates.
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Here are some examples of current trends and technology that could very well inform future Google updates:

●Optimization for voice search and mobile
●Clear and concise content continues to be a major focus
●Sticking to the basics through each update
●HTTPS will become more important for security
●Mobile-first and local SEO more important as time goes on

Final Thoughts 

​Google updates are meant to improve the overall experience for users. So long as you stick to the basics and you always keep your users in mind,  you have nothing to fear from the updates.
 
That being said, little things can slip through the cracks, so always be vigilant when updates are coming and going, and be sure to keep your SEO consultants handy.
 
How do you prepare for major Google updates? Let us know in the comments! 

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