1. Core updates from Google periodically change how its algorithms assess and rank websites and pages. This can impact rankings through shifts in user intent, site quality issues being caught up to, world events influencing queries, and overhauls to search like the E-A-T framework.
2. There are many possible user intents beyond just transactional, navigational and informational. Identifying intent shifts is important during core updates. Sites may need to optimize for new intents through different content types and sections.
3. Responding effectively to core updates requires analyzing "before and after" data to understand changes, identifying new intents or page types, and ensuring content matches appropriate intents across video, images, knowledge graphs and more.
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Google's Just Not That Into You: Understanding Core Updates & Search Intent
7. on April 23, 2012
Me sleeping
peacefully
Our company ranks
#2 for our target
keyword
8. Followed all the
best practices from
Moz Beginner Guide
& Whiteboard
Fridays
Our 2012 SEO Strategy (my confession)
9. …but also,
bought shady links…
and it worked.
At this time,
it was conventional
SEO wisdom.
Our 2012 SEO Strategy (my confession)
10. April 24, 2012: The Penguin Update
Destroyed all our rankings
Set company into a panic
I attempted to disavow
thousands of links
…I ended up resigning
18. Before The Times presented evidence
of the paid links to JCPenney.com,
Google had just begun to roll out an
algorithm change that had a negative
effect on Penney’s search results.
- 2011 NYTimes article about JC Penney
19. We are experiencing some slowing of
our overall revenue growth which we
believe is due in part to changes
that Google made in its natural
search engine algorithms, to which
we are responding.
- overstock.com earnings report in 2015
28. How Google Wants You To Think About It
Movie
Movie
Movie Movie
Movie
Movie
in 2017 in 2023
Best movies
29. T h e r e ' s n o t h i n g
wrong with pages
that may not be
performing as well
as they were before
a core update.
-
30. In fact, there's nothing
in a core update that
targets specific pages
or sites.
Instead, the changes
are about improving
how our systems assess
content overall.
-
34. ✴ Aggressive
advertising that
affects usability &
performance
✴ Significant thin or
duplicate content
✴ Excessive low-quality
local landing pages
(doorway pages)
✴ Significant low-quality
content lacking E-E-A-T
✴ Deceptive affiliate links
✴ Being too “salesy” with
Your Money, Your Life
information
Examples of Systemic,
Site-wide Quality Issues
35. We told them it was a bad idea
May 2020 Core Update
Client builT thousands
of “fake” local landing pages
A cautionary tale
from a former client
36. (…and wait for next
core update, or the
one after)
Prioritize fixing
these issues
Core Update Recovery Plan
43. Generic
SEO Responses “We should
build more
links to this
page”
“We should change
our title tag and
meta description”
“The #1 ranking
site has a better
Domain Authority
than us”
44. Better, Data-Driven SEO Responses:
“There is a temporary surge in
demand due to recent press
around two new companies
called ‘Playground.’
It may subside over time.”
45. Better, Data-Driven SEO Responses:
“‘Playground’ is not our top-
converting keyword. We should
analyze PPC data to identify the
highest converting related
terms to focus on.”
46. Better, Data-Driven SEO Responses:
“We should shift our focus to
Google Shopping & Images,
where we see most conversions
for this keyword”
48. DURING THE START OF COVID
QUERY: MASKS
✴ Costume masks stopped
ranking on page 1
✴ The CDC, WHO, and FDA now
appear on page 1 (+ position 1)
✴ Wikipedia disappeared
49. DURING THE START OF COVID
QUERY: FLOUR
✴ A bakery franchise lost top positions
✴ A site offering sourdough recipes now
ranks No.1
✴ Shift toward ecommerce for sites that
have flour in stock (Amazon & Target)
55. ✴ Medical product
reviews & weight loss
supplements
✴ Fake authors, no real
E-E-A-T
✴ Pushed products in
medical content with
affiliate links and
discount codes
Other sites impacted by the
“Medic” core update:
56. The rise of medical authorities
during the pandemic
63. SEOs always talk about
“THE 3 SEARCH INTENTS”
1. Transactional 2. Navigational 3. Informational
64. There are way more than
3 intents in SEO.
Let’s be real.
65. More accurate list of actual search intents
✴ Buying a product
✴ Looking for pictures
✴ Reading product reviews
✴ Finding local businesses &
activities
✴ Seeing recent news
✴ Fact checking
✴ Defining the word or phase
✴ Tutorials & troubleshooting
✴ Finding stock photos
✴ Recipes
✴ Medical symptoms
✴ Finding government
resources
✴ Seeing pictures
✴ Booking a trip
✴ Watching a video
✴ Hearing a song
✴ Translating a phrase
✴ Spell check
✴ How to
✴ Lyrics
✴ Adult videos/images
✴ Researching reputation
69. Google may determine that
a keyword requires a new
“intent” & adjust rankings
during core updates
70. ✴ Zoom moved into
position 2.
✴ Pages listing physical
rooms were replaced by
informational content.
✴ Wikipedia disappeared.
QUERY: “CONFERENCE ROOM”
Intent shifts at the start of COVID-19
96. If your site is affected by a core update,
you might have to wait until the next
update rolls out, or the one after that,
to see a change in performance.
97. Remember that intent shifts can be
inevitable and it’s not always easy - or
even possible - to use SEO to counteract
what Google chooses to rank.
98. Optimize all the things!
Provide content that meets all
possible intents to cover as much
ground as possible.