So, Google strikes again, right?
They have an update of their broad core algorithm.
Now, if you’ve been hit by this update, and by hit, I mean, negatively – if you’ve been negatively hit by their algorithm update, avoid the common mistake of blaming them for the drastic change in rankings that you are seeing.
Instead, take the hit as an opportunity to make the necessary changes to your site.
Take the hit as an opportunity to make improvements to your site.
Take the hit as an opportunity to optimise your site.
And when I say optimise, in this case, I’m referring to the big changes you may have had in mind, or in the pipeline, but hadn’t yet committed to.
The hit to your site is the perfect opportunity to act on the changes your site requires.
Here’s why I say this…
In most cases, optimisation is better carried out in an evolutionary manner.
It’s best carried out in a manner where you make small, incremental changes.
This approach is safe and steady.
Why do I say this…?
You see, the reality to SEO is that SEO implementation threatens your site’s status in the SERPs.
SEO is all about improvement. Improvement requires changes to your site. Changes to your site opens up the possibility that your current status in the SERPs will also change.
In most cases, this is exactly what you want. This is why you implement the changes in the first place – to realise the improvements you know will result from you making those changes.
However, sometime, a change leads a site to have a worse off visibility in the SERPs, usually temporarily, until Google reconsiders your site and indeed, rank it higher.
The time period, between your site being worse off and improving in the SERPs, can be days, weeks or even months – or longer.
What determines this is the level of change that carried out on your site.
By level of change, I mean, the complexity and volume of change that’s carried out.
The bigger the change, the higher the risk.
This is why, in most cases, making small iterations is far better than big, bold changes.
These types of changes can destable your status in the SERPs, leaving your website worse off than it was – at least for a certain amount of time.
So in most cases, small iterations is the better approach to use – an approach where your site’s SEO evolves over a long period of time.
However, there are times where you need to make broad changes to your site.
There are times where you need to be bold with your SEO.
There are times where you need to revolutionize your website.
An algorithm update is the perfect time to do this.
If you’ve been hit by an algorithm change, you don’t need to fear losing your visibility – you’ve already dropped in rankings.
That pressure of not making bold changes to your site in full awareness that your risk your current status-quo in the SERPs is removed.
What you have instead, is a perfect timeframe to make those bold updates to improve the site experience of your users.
This is what an algorithm update presents to you – when you’ve been hit by it.
Remember, Google’s objective is centered on their users.
Their users are ones you want to acquire – to make your users.
Although Google’s guidelines are guidelines and not laws, they owe it to their users to ensure a strong influence over websites.
So, when they roll out an algorithm update or change, you can be sure it’s for the betterment of their, and by proxy, your users.
It’s for the betterment of web experience.
It’s never an attack on your business (what some marketers tend to think) but rather a strong push for you to make changes to better the experience of users – theirs and yours.
Whilst making revolutionary changes to your website is bold, doing so at the right time might just be what you need to level-up from your status-quo in the SERPs.
Those big, bold changes are high risk to your visibility and also high impact to it.
When you’re hit by an algorithm update, the risk element is removed.
Although it’s unwillingly, it’s removed.
You can’t go back in time to change things, you simply have to make changes from your current state.
You simply have to make improvements from your current state.
You simply have to optimise your site from your current state.
Doing so, with big impactful recommendations, after you’ve been hit by an algorithm update, is the perfect time in your SEO journey.
So, don’t panic. SEO isn’t dead. The world is not ending.
You’ve simply been met with the opportunity to level-up.
And by leveling-up you’ll be better prepared when the next algorithm update or change happens.
Believe me, as long as you have a website, you’re going to experience algorithm updates and/or changes.
The way you handle this experience will be telling of the way you handle them in the future.
Bear this in mind as you make the necessary changes to your site.
Acting on the SEO best practices and guidelines upon an algorithm update is not for the sake of search.
If you’ve been listening to me for any length of time, you know I’m a big believer that SEO is for users and not search engines.
At a time when a search engine updates its algorithms, it’s even more important to keep your users in mind.
The changes you’ll be making are not for the sake of Google. They’re for the sake of users – theirs and yours.
SEOs don’t optimise for search engines.
We optimise for users. We acquire them via search engines but we are not optimising for search engines.
Bearing this distinction in mind as you make progress will help you avoid a rollercoaster ride as you journey onwards with your SEO.
