The relaxing evenings of SEOs were interrupted yesterday as Google dropped the bombshell they had rolled out a broad core algorithm update, calling it the June 2021 Core Update – and will be followed by another in July. Historically, Google released these updates every few months with the last being in December. Having two updates in two months is new territory for SEOs.
The two updates were originally meant to be one, however, some elements were not prepared in time so Google has decided to proceed with what is ready and the rest will come next month. Google does emphasise not to panic too much as it is likely most sites won’t notice the effects of the update.
Google does provide insights on how to recover from any negative effects from a core update and it is important to remember it is not the fault of your actions if rankings are negatively affected. It’s important not to celebrate too early if they jump up the ranking either.
Google rolled out the update on 2nd June 2021 and will take one or two weeks to complete.
Why Google releases these updates
Google has written a blog post explaining why these core updates are important. The blog states:
‘’Google Search receives billions of queries every day from countries around the world in 150 languages. Our automated systems identify the most relevant and reliable information from hundreds of billions of pages in our index to help people find what they’re looking for. Delivering great results at this type of scale and complexity requires many different systems, and we’re always looking for ways to improve these systems so we can display the most useful results possible.’’
This is Google’s attempt to stay competitive against other search engines and to serve the needs of their user base. The blog goes on to address the growth of the internet and content that is being created:
“as new sites emerge and the web changes, continued updates are key to ensuring we’re supporting a wide range of publishers, creators and businesses while providing searchers with the best information available.”
Page Experience update
Don’t forget, the Page Experience update has started rolling out and will complete at the end of August 2021. The update was delayed from May and will focus on penalising or rewarding websites based on their core web vitals, mobile usability, security issue, HTTPS usage and Ad experience. Google has reassured us that there should be no drastic changes and any drastic drops or spikes should be migrated from the gradual rollout. You can read all about the update here.
Summary
The next two months are crucial for SEOs with the broad core vitals update and the long-awaited Page Experience update expected in just a few weeks. Although Google says websites should not notice the effects of the broad core update, it’s important to stay positive if you do see a change in the rankings. Good luck!
How are you preparing for the Google broad core and page experience updates? We would love to hear your thoughts! Tweet us @TeamTillison
