SEO
Local SEO Strategies For Plumbers And Other Trades
Plumbers and other tradespeople are essential in modern society, yet they face one huge barrier to entering new markets: Peeling away customers from the competition.
Many homeowners have established relationships with plumbers and contractors, making breaking into certain markets difficult.
Thankfully, plumbers have ways to excel in a new market, particularly when capturing new homeowners or performing emergency services where other plumbers are unavailable.
The best sources for seizing these opportunities are Google Search, and you can improve your visibility there using local SEO.
In this guide, you’ll find tips and tactics to help plumbers, electricians, contractors, and other tradespeople and businesses break into a new market, build a customer base, and expand your brand.
Off-Site SEO Essentials
One of the biggest traffic sources for all businesses comes from ‘near me’ searches, particularly on mobile phones.
By optimizing your Google Business Profile listing and third-party directory listings, you can build your business’s exposure and increase the number of incoming calls to your business.
Google Business Profile Optimization
Your Google Business Profile shows in local search pack results and is displayed in Google Maps searches.
As a result, optimizing your Google Business Profile listing enables customers to call your business, drive to its location, or visit its website with just one click.
To optimize your Google Business Profile listing correctly, follow these tips and dive deeper with this guide.
- Ensure consistent NAP information (i.e., name, address, and phone number).
- Verify your business on Google Maps.
- Respond to customer reviews on your profile with helpful advice or kind responses.
- Write a description of your business and its services.
- Use high-resolution and relevant photos to showcase your brand and company.
Local Directories
Next, you’ll want to optimize your brand’s business profile on other third-party sites that customers frequently use to find plumbers, including:
- The Better Business Bureau.
- Yellow Pages.
- Angie’s List.
- Yelp.
- Houzz.
- Home Advisor.
- LinkedIn.
- Iambuilders.com.
- Blue Book.
While some sites like Yelp have waned over the years, these directory sites are still important business referral sources.
Some sites provide ranked lists of different businesses based on customer reviews, which can furnish social proof and trust for your business (if you get enough positive reviews).
Moz offers tools for local citation building, or you can manually claim each business yourself, following the tips above to optimize your social media presence.
Build A Social Media Presence
While engaging with customers on social media is not critical for many contractors or trades, sources like Facebook can be valuable for customers looking for special announcements, business hours, and reviews.
Build a social media page for Facebook and LinkedIn, providing high-resolution photos and clear NAP info for easy contact.
Managing Reviews
Finally, you’ll need to manage reviews on external third-party websites to build customer trust.
Generally, you should analyze each third-party site at least once a month, if not more, to see what people are saying about your business and how you can improve.
Think of reviews like personal referrals – which are already a massive source of revenue for your business.
According to one survey, 84% of customers of service businesses and tradespersons said reviews are ‘important’ or ‘very important’ in their decision-making process.
Follow these tips to manage online reviews for your plumbing business:
- Encourage customers to leave a review after a positive service or engagement.
- Encourage customers to leave reviews on your website and all marketing materials.
- Respond to positive reviews.
- Respond to negative reviews with solutions or an apology.
Don’t worry too much about negative reviews, as most customers will be equally dismayed by overtly harsh reviews.
However, responding to negative reviews with a positive service engagement could build more customer trust over time.
It also helps you show off your customer service skills.
On-Page SEO Essentials
Now that you’ve optimized your business listing on strategic third-party websites, it’s time to optimize your website for local SEO results.
Local Keyword Research
To begin, you’ll need to conduct local keyword research to see which terms drive the most qualified traffic to your website.
Open up a free Google Ads account and use the Keyword Planner tool to search for keywords in your area.
For example, if you operate in Houston, you could use “plumbers houston” as your seed keyword and filter your search for Houston, Texas, to uncover further ideas:
Screenshot from Google Ads, July 2022Based on this list, “plumber houston tx” and “houston plumbing services” have less competition and can be easily won in local search results.
You can also filter this list by “top of page bid” and look at the highest bids for the most commercially relevant keywords.
You can also take a competitor from your initial keyword list and plug in their URL to see which keywords they rank for.
You can add a semantic filter to adjust your results for strictly plumbing-related keywords.
Screenshot from Google Ads, July 2022Building a list of these keywords will be critical for optimizing meta tags on top-level pages and developing content ideas.
Meta Tag Optimization
Now that we have our list of seed keywords, we need to apply them to our web pages.
The first area will be your homepage, where you can customize the title tag to include your brand name and a seed keyword, such as “Matt’s Plumbing Company | Plumbers Houston.”
You will need to optimize the metadata on each page with relevant keyword data to make pages more likely to rank for search results.
This metadata will include:
- Title Tag/H1: The primary keyword related to a page and the page’s topic. Title tags must be between 50-60 characters, or titles will be truncated in SERPs (search engine results page).
- Meta Description: A brief description of your webpage, which includes your seed keyword and a call-to-action to read or find out more. Meta descriptions are ideally between 145–160 characters.
- Header Tags: The subtopics or dividing headers across each page. Each header should include a relevant long-tail keyword.
- URLs: URLs should retain a simple structure with your site name followed by the name of the title of the webpage.
- Keyword Usage: Seed keywords should be used in the webpage’s introduction and 1–5% throughout the text document.
Local Schema
While local keyword research will certainly help Google or Bing index your website for local search results, nothing is guaranteed.
To help search engines index your website properly, use schema markup on web pages to properly label and index them.
While schema markup can be complicated, Google’s Structured Data Tool simplifies the task.
Insert your URL and add the appropriate schema markup to ensure each page on your website is properly indexed by Google.
Some common schema markup data that will apply to your plumbing business include:
- Geo.
- Type.
- Opening Hours.
- Telephone.
- Address.
- Review.
- Price.
See our Complete Guide to Local Schema for more useful tips.
Mobile Responsiveness
Another big component of local search is mobile search.
Many local searches for your business will be conducted via smartphones, so you can’t ignore the importance of mobile.
Thankfully, most modern CMS options come with responsive web design.
However, to ensure your website runs smoothly on mobile, consider the following tips:
- Compress all images.
- Reduce clicks and leverage scrolling.
- Keep webpages short and simple.
- Insert click-to-call buttons and icons.
- Limit the amount of JavaScript.
- Avoid large videos (leverage YouTube instead!)
Site Speed Optimization
Fortunately, by optimizing for mobile, you’ll also be optimizing for page speed.
To increase page speeds, consider the following tips:
- Minify CSS.
- Enable file compression.
- Use browser caching.
- Clean up redirects.
You should still identify page speed issues using Google’s Page Speed Insights for more helpful information.
Creating Consistent NAP
As a final tip for this section, it’s crucial to ensure that all contact information (name, address, phone number = NAP) and branding are consistent across all your pages.
For example, inserting a click-to-call button and your address in the top corner of each page (or the footer) will ensure customers can contact you whenever they’re ready.
Content Essentials
With your website in place and ready to rock, it’s time to build landing pages for your most important services and service regions.
Service Pages
Ideally, your UX should retain very simple navigation, with your target keyword (such as “Plumbers Houston”) and all auxiliary services as secondary or service pages.
These pages could include services, such as:
- Emergency Plumbing.
- Toilet Repairs.
- Pipe Leaks.
- Garbage Disposal Repair.
- Water Heater Services.
- Sewage.
- Drain Cleaning.
- Gas Piping.
These should all be located under a general Plumbing Services top-navigation page where users can explore different services, find out pricing, repair specifics, etc.
Regional Pages
Another important consideration for plumbers and contractors is whether your business serves a large metro area or different locations.
For example, if you provide plumbing services to most of New York City, you could create regional pages for Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens with a list of various services.
Furthermore, if there is enough keyword volume to warrant those pages, you could create regional pages for neighborhoods in New York, such as the Upper East Side, Upper West Side, and SoHo.
These pages may also rank for ‘near me’ searches in those neighborhoods.
Creating A Blog
Finally, you could also consider starting a blog if you feel it will give you a leg up on the competition.
Blogs provide several benefits for local businesses, including plumbers, such as:
- Providing customers with easy DIY tips and repairs.
- Separating your brand from other plumbers as a local authority.
- Providing you with engaging content to share on your social channels.
- Ranking for long-tail keywords relevant to your business to drive traffic.
You can also consider sharing DIY and tutorial videos on platforms like YouTube, which link back to your website.
Video content is highly shareable and easy to consume, giving your business much-needed exposure.
Link Building Strategies
While we discussed ways to drive traffic from third-party websites, link building can be an exceptionally useful tool in your arsenal to give your business a leg-up on the competition.
Link building – whether it’s using rel=follow or nofollow links – directs qualified traffic to your site and customers to your business.
If you don’t have the money to spend on a tool like Ahrefs, here are some free local link building tips to help you drive traffic to your website:
- Reach out to newspapers in your town that list local contractors and ask for a link to your site.
- Reach out to local bloggers who have interviewed local businesses in your area to contribute a quote or interview.
- Write guest posts on websites with local influencers to contribute some DIY repair tips and other related content.
- Sponsor a local team, volunteer, or host an event that forces journalists and bloggers to write about your business.
These tips will help give your brand exposure, which, in turn, will drive more customers to your business over time.
Digital Advertising
Online advertising can also be very effective if you want to drive quick exposure and calls to your business.
For example, advertising on Google Ads allows you to bid on the keywords you’re trying to rank for, so your website shows up above the local search pack.
Screenshot from Google Ads, July 2022While I suggest enlisting help or taking a course to begin advertising on Google, here are a few helpful tips to help you promote your plumbing business on Google:
- Use geotargeting to narrow your audience to a specific region.
- Insert negative keywords to reduce ad spend.
- Leverage location-specific keywords to compete with ‘“near me” and organic results.
- Enable ad extensions that provide easy call options and list your business address.
- Create landing page copy that’s relevant to your ad and includes relevant keywords, high-quality images, and an easy way to contact your business.
- A/B test ads to see which ad copy generates the best performance.
- Use longer tail keywords with less competition or change your bid strategy to limit CPC (cost per click).
In addition, Facebook provides sophisticated audience research tools that allow you to advertise to customers based on demographic information, such as whether they’re a homeowner, over a certain age, or own residential/commercial real estate.
Email Marketing
Finally, I want to mention email marketing, as it can be a powerful tool for local businesses.
Plumbers can benefit from email marketing by sending re-engagement emails that remind previous customers of your business, especially if you work with residential and commercial residents.
You can send emails to advertise local promotions in your area, such as discounted inspections or preventative maintenance.
However, email marketing can be expensive, especially for a trade that relies heavily on emergency repairs.
For this reason, email marketing is not truly necessary for plumbers unless you actively create content, engage with the community, or run promotions.
Conclusion
SEO for tradespeople and their businesses involves many of the same strategies as with other local businesses.
However, tradespeople require special consideration for their unique business model.
Some forms of marketing, such as social media and email marketing, may not be as effective as advertising or reputation management.
Hopefully, by following these tips, you can establish a positive web presence for your business and start getting more phone calls.
More resources:
Featured Image: Khosro/Shutterstock
SEO
Is It Alternatives You’re Looking For?
Whatever the reason, in this article, I’ll share some alternatives to HARO and a few extra ways to get expert quotes and backlinks for your website.
Disclaimer: I am not a PR expert. I did a bit of outreach a few years ago, but I have only been an occasional user of HARO in the past year or so.
So, rather than providing my opinion on the best alternatives to HARO, I thought it would be fun to ask users of the “new HARO” what they thought were the best alternatives.
I wanted to give the “new HARO”—Connectively—the benefit of the doubt.
Still, a few minutes after my pitch was accepted, I got two responses that appeared to be AI-generated from two “visionary directors,” both with “extensive experience.”
My experience of Connectively so far mirrored Josh’s experience of old HARO: The responses were most likely automated.
Although I was off to a bad start, looking through most of the responses afterward, these two were the only blatant automated pitches I could spot.
These responses weren’t included in my survey, and anyone who saw my pitch would have to copy and paste the survey link to complete it—increasing the chance of genuine human responses—hopefully.
So, without further ado, here are the results of the survey.
Sidenote.
The survey on Connectively ran for a week and received 101 votes. Respondents could vote for their top three HARO alternatives.
Price: Free.
Help a B2B Writer was the #1 alternative platform respondents recommended. In my survey it got 22% of the vote.
Help a B2B Writer is a platform run by Superpath that is similar to HARO but focused on connecting business-to-business (B2B) journalists with industry experts and sources for their stories.
Price: Free and paid plans. Paid plans start at $99 per month.
Coming in joint second place, Featured was popular, scoring 18% of the vote.
Featured connects journalists with experts and thought leaders. It allows experts to create profiles showcasing their expertise and helps journalists find suitable sources for their stories.
Price: Free and paid plans. Paid plans start at $99 per month.
Qwoted is another platform that I’ve heard talked about a lot. It came in joint second place, scoring 18% of the vote.
Qwoted matches journalists with expert sources, allowing them to collaborate on creating high-quality content. It streamlines the process of finding and connecting with relevant sources.
Price: Free for ten pitches per month
Despite being the “new HARO,” Connectively came 4th on my list, scoring 12% of the vote—surprisingly, it wasn’t even the top choice for most users on its own platform.
Connectively connects journalists with sources and experts. It helps journalists find relevant sources for their stories and allows experts to gain media exposure.
Price: Free and paid plans. Paid plans start at $5.95 per month.
SourceBottle is an online platform that connects journalists, bloggers, and media professionals with expert sources. It allows experts to pitch their ideas and insights to journalists looking for story sources. It scored 9% of the vote in my survey.
Price: Free.
JournoRequest is an X account that shares journalist requests for sources. UK-based journalists and experts often use it, but it can sometimes have international reach. It scored 7% of the vote in my survey.
Price: Paid. Plans start at $1,150 per year.
ProfNet connects journalists to expert sources. It helps journalists find knowledgeable sources for their articles, interviews, and other media content. It helps subject matter experts gain media exposure and share their expertise. It scored 5% of the vote in my survey.
Price: 7-day free trial and paid plans. Paid plans start at $147 per month.
JustReachOut is a PR and influencer outreach platform that helps businesses find and connect with relevant journalists and influencers. It provides tools for personalized outreach and relationship management. It scored 3% of the vote in my survey.
Price: 14-day free trial and paid plans. Paid plans start at $50 per month.
OnePitch is a platform that simplifies the process of pitching story ideas to journalists. Businesses and PR professionals can create and send targeted pitches to relevant media outlets. It scored 3% of the vote in my survey.
Price: Free.
PitchRate is a free PR tool that connects journalists and highly rated experts. Useful for subject matter experts looking for free PR leads, media coverage, or publicity. Or journalists looking for credible sources. It scored 1% of the vote in my survey.
Price: Free and paid plans. Paid plans start at ~$105 per month.
A UK service that connects media professionals with expert sources, press releases, and PR contacts. It scored 1% of the vote in my survey.
Price: Invitation-only platform.
Forbes Councils is an invitation-only community for executives and entrepreneurs. Members can contribute expert insights and thought leadership content to Forbes.com and gain media exposure. It scored 1% of the vote in my survey.
Price: Free.
Yes, you read that right.
HERO was created by Peter Shankman, the original creator of HARO, who said the platform will always be free. It scored 1% of the vote in my survey.
Peter set up the platform after receiving over 2,000 emails asking him to build a new version of HARO.
Price: Paid. Sign up for details.
Meltwater received no votes in my survey, but I included it because I’d seen it shared on social media as a paid alternative to HARO.
It’s a media intelligence and social media monitoring platform. It provides tools for tracking media coverage, analyzing sentiment, and identifying influencers and journalists for outreach.
Price: Free.
Expertise Finder also received no votes in my survey, but it was included as I saw it had been recommended as an HARO alternative on LinkedIn. It’s a platform that helps journalists find and connect with expert sources from universities.
HARO had a dual purpose for SEOs: it was a place to acquire links, but it also was a place to get expert quotes on topics for your next article.
Here are a few more free methods outside the platforms we’ve covered that can help you get expert quotes and links.
We’ve already seen that JournoRequest is a popular X account that shares journalist requests for sources.
But you can also follow hashtags on X to access even more opportunities.
Here are my favorite hashtags to follow:
I used to track the #journorequest hashtag to find opportunities for my clients when I worked agency-side, so I know it can work well for quotes and link acquisition.
Here are two opportunities I found just checking the #journorequest hashtag:
Here’s another example from the Telegraph—a DR 92 website:
Certain types of content are more likely to be shared by journalists and PRs than others.
One of these types of content is statistics-based content. The reason? Journalists often use statistics to support their points.
Once they have included your statistic in their post, they often add a backlink back to your post.
We tested this with our SEO statistics post, and as you can see, it still ranks number one in Google.
Another method is to use the Linking authors report in Ahrefs’ Site Explorer. This report shows the authors’ names who link to any website you enter.
You can see which authors link to their site by entering your competitor’s domain. Some of these authors may represent outreach opportunities for your website as well.
- Head to Site Explorer, click on Linking authors
- Type in your competitor’s URL
- Contact any authors that you think may be interested in your website and its content
Tip
If you download your website’s linking authors and your competitors into a spreadsheet and put them into separate tabs, you can compare the lists to see which authors are only linking to your competitor’s website.
When I was about to wrap up this article, I was contacted by Greg Heilers of Jolly SEO on LinkedIn.
He said he’d sent 200,000+ pitches over the years and wanted to share the results with me.
These are his top three platforms over the last 1,000 pitches he sent. Interestingly, we can see that it’s similar to my much smaller-scale survey.
Hopefully, the data here speaks for itself. The high-quality links and traffic from HARO alternatives is considerable.
This research shows that Featured gained the most link placements in this campaign.
We have compiled some helpful content related to link building that you can get your teeth into. These hand-picked guides will take you from beginner to expert in no time.
Here are my favorite resources on this topic:
Final thoughts
There are many options for sourcing expert quotes and getting links for your next marketing campaigns. HARO may be dead, but its legacy lives on.
My highly unscientific survey suggests that most “new HARO” users liked Help a B2B Writer the most, but for HARO purists, there really is only one choice—HERO.
Give your favorites from this list a whirl, and let me know if you have any success. Got more questions? Ping me on X. 🙂
SEO
OpenAI To Show Content & Links In Response To Queries
OpenAI content deal will enhance ChatGPT with the ability to show real-time content with links in response to queries. OpenAI quietly took steps to gaining more search engine type functionality as part of a content licensing deal that may have positive implications for publishers and SEO.
Content Licensing Deal
OpenAI agreed to content licensing with the Financial Times, a global news organization with offices in London, New York, across continental Europe and Asia.
Content licensing deals between AI organizations and publishers are generally about getting access to high quality training data. The training data is then used by language models to learn connections between words and concepts. This deal goes far beyond that use.
ChatGPT Will Show Direct Quotes With Attribution
What makes this content licensing deal between The Financial Times and OpenAI is that there is a reference to giving attribution to content within ChatGPT.
The announced licensing deal explicitly mentions the use of the licensed content so that ChatGPT could directly quote it and provide links to the licensed content.
Further, the licensing deal is intended to help improve ChatGPT’s “usefulness”, which is vague and can mean many things, but it takes on a slightly different meaning when used in the context of attributed answers.
The Financial Times agreement states that the licensing deal is for use in ChatGPT when it provides “attributed content” which is content with an attribution, commonly a link to where the content appeared.
This is the part of the announcement that references attributed content:
“The Financial Times today announced a strategic partnership and licensing agreement with OpenAI, a leader in artificial intelligence research and deployment, to enhance ChatGPT with attributed content, help improve its models’ usefulness by incorporating FT journalism, and collaborate on developing new AI products and features for FT readers. “
And this is the part of the announcement that mentions ChatGPT offering users attributed quotes and links:
“Through the partnership, ChatGPT users will be able to see select attributed summaries, quotes and links to FT journalism in response to relevant queries.”
The Financial Times Group CEO was even more explicit about OpenAI’s intention to show content and links in ChatGPT:
“This is an important agreement in a number of respects,” said FT Group CEO John Ridding. “It recognises the value of our award-winning journalism and will give us early insights into how content is surfaced through AI. …this partnership will help keep us at the forefront of developments in how people access and use information.
OpenAI understands the importance of transparency, attribution, and compensation…”
Brad Lightcap, COO of OpenAI directly referenced showing real-time news content in ChatGPT but more important he referenced OpenAI exploring new ways to show content to its user base.
Lastly, the COO stated that they embraced disruption, which means innovation that creates a new industry or paradigm, usually at the expense of an older one, like search engines.
Lightcap is quoted:
“We have always embraced new technologies and disruption, and we’ll continue to operate with both curiosity and vigilance as we navigate this next wave of change.”
Showing direct quotes of Financial Times content with links to that content is very similar to how search engines work. This is a big change to how ChatGPT works and could be a sign of where ChatGPT is going in the future, a functionality that incorporates online content with links to that content.
Something Else That Is Possibly Related
Someone on Twitter recently noticed a change that is related to “search” in relation to ChatGPT.
This change involves an SSL security certificate that was added for a subdomain of ChatGPT.com. ChatGPT.com is a domain name that was snapped up by someone to capitalize on the 2022 announcement of ChatGPT by OpenAI. OpenAI eventually acquired the domain and it’s been redirecting to ChatGPT.
The change that was noticed is to the subdomain: search.chatgpt.com.
This is a screenshot of the tweet:
Big News For SEO and Publishers
This is significant news for publishers and search marketers ChatGPT will become a source of valuable traffic if OpenAI takes ChatGPT in the direction of providing attributed summaries and direct quotes.
How Can Publishers Get Traffic From ChatGPT?
Questions remain about attributed quotes with links in response to relevant queries. Here are X unknowns about ChatGPT attributed links.
- Does this mean that only licensed content will be shown and linked to in ChatGPT?
- Will ChatGPT incorporate and use most web data without licensing deals in the same way that search engines do?
- OpenAI may incorporate an Opt-In model where publishers can use a notation in Robots.txt or in meta data to opt-in to receiving traffic from ChatGPT.
- Would you opt into receiving traffic from ChatGPT in exchange for allowing your content to be used for training?
- How would SEOs and publisher’s equation on ChatGPT change if their competitors are all receiving traffic from ChatGPT?
Read the original announcement:
Financial Times announces strategic partnership with OpenAI
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Photo For Everything
SEO
Google’s John Mueller On Website Recovery After Core Updates
John Mueller, a Google Search Advocate, provided guidance this week regarding the path forward for websites impacted by recent search algorithm updates.
The discussion started on X (formerly Twitter) by SEO professional Thomas Jepsen.
Jepsen tagged Mueller, asking:
“Google has previously said Google doesn’t hold a grudge and sites will recover once issues have been solved. Is that still the case after HCU?”
Mueller’s response offered hope to site owners while being realistic about the challenges ahead.
Addressing Recovery Timelines
Mueller affirmed Google’s stance on not holding grudges, stating, “That’s still the case.”
However, he acknowledged the complexity of rankings, saying:
“…some things take much longer to be reassessed (sometimes months, at the moment), and some bigger effects require another update cycle.”
That’s still the case. That said, some things take much longer to be reassessed (sometimes months, at the moment), and some bigger effects require another update cycle. https://t.co/WDy7Q4dpzb has some more.
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 29, 2024
Mueller pointed to a Google help document explaining the nuances. The document reads:
“Broad core updates tend to happen every few months. Content that was impacted in Search or Discover by one might not recover—assuming improvements have been made—until the next broad core update is released.
Do keep in mind that improvements made by site owners aren’t a guarantee of recovery, nor do pages have any static or guaranteed position in our search results. If there’s more deserving content, that will continue to rank well with our systems.”
The Comments Sparking Debate
Jepsen probed further, asking, “Is a core update what’s needed for HCU-affected sites to recover (assuming they’ve fixed their issues)?”
Mueller’s response highlighted how situations can differ:
“It depends on the situation… I realize there’s a big space between the situations, but generalizing doesn’t help. Sometimes it takes a lot of work on the site, a long time, and an update.”
It depends on the situation. https://t.co/F9s3Hli9t7 and https://t.co/pLdm29PjPD has some on that. I realize there’s a big space between the situations, but generalizing doesn’t help. Sometimes it takes a lot of work on the site, a long time, and an update.
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 29, 2024
The thread grew as user @selectgame raised concerns about Google Discover traffic, to which Mueller replied:
“Google Discover is affected by core updates as well as other parts of Search (and there are more policies that apply to Discover).”
Google Discover is affected by core updates as well as other parts of Search (and there are more policies that apply to Discover). If you’re seeing these changes when a core update rolled out, that might be what you’re seeing.
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 29, 2024
Growing Frustrations
Prominent industry figure Lily Ray voiced mounting frustrations, stating,
“…many HCU-affected websites – which have been making all kinds of improvements over the last 7 months – have only seen further declines with the March Core Update.
I have seen some sites lose 90% or more of their SEO visibility since the HCU, with the last few weeks being the nail in the coffin, despite making significant improvements.”
Ray continued:
“And in my professional opinion, many of these sites did not deserve anywhere near that level of impact, especially the further declines over the past month.”
Mueller hasn’t responded to Ray’s tweet at this time.
John, any chance you can comment on the fact that many HCU-affected websites – which have been making all kinds of improvements over the last 7 months – have only seen further declines with the March Core Update?
I have seen some sites lose 90% or more of their SEO visibility… https://t.co/lvYRAScRQQ
— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) April 29, 2024
Looking Ahead
As the search community awaits Google’s next moves, the path to recovery appears arduous for many impacted by recent algorithm reassessments of “Helpful Content.”
Site improvements don’t guarantee immediate recovery, so publishers face an uphill battle guided only by Google’s ambiguous public advice.
Why SEJ Cares
The March 2024 core update has proven disastrous for many websites, with severe traffic losses persisting even after sites try to improve low-quality content, address technical issues, and realign with Google’s guidelines.
Having clear, actionable guidance from Google on recovering from core update updates is invaluable.
As evidenced by the frustrations expressed, the current communications leave much to be desired regarding transparency and defining a straightforward recovery path.
How This Can Help You
While Mueller’s comments provide some insights, the key takeaways are:
- Regaining previous rankings after an algorithm hit is possible if sufficient content/site quality improvements are made.
- Recovery timelines can vary significantly and may require a future core algorithm update.
- Even with enhancements, recovery isn’t guaranteed as rankings depend on the overall pool of competing content.
The path is undoubtedly challenging, but Mueller’s comments underscore that perseverance with substantial site improvements can eventually pay off.
FAQ
Can SEO professionals predict recovery time for a website hit by core updates?
SEO professionals can’t pinpoint when a site will recover after a core Google algorithm update.
Reasons for this include:
- Google releases core updates every few months, so sites may need to wait for the next one.
- It can take months for Google to reassess and adjust rankings.
- How competitive the query is also impacts if and when a site recovers.
Does making site improvements after a core update ensure recovery in rankings and visibility?
After making improvements following a Google algorithm update, regaining your previous rankings isn’t guaranteed.
Reasons why include:
- Your impacted content may not recover until the next core update, provided you’ve implemented enough site improvements.
- Google’s search results are dynamic, and rankings can fluctuate based on the quality of competitor content.
- There’s no fixed or guaranteed position in Google’s search results.
What is the relationship between Google Discover traffic and core search updates?
Google’s core algorithm updates that impact regular search results also affect Google Discover.
However, Google Discover has additional specific policies that determine what content appears there.
This means:
- Improving your content and website quality can boost your visibility on Google Discover, just like regular searches.
- You may see changes in your Discover traffic when Google rolls out core updates.
- Your SEO and content strategy should account for potential impacts on regular searches and Google Discover.
Featured Image: eamesBot/Shutterstock
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