SEO

Technical Issues Usually Not a Trigger for Core Update Problems

Published

2 years ago

May 5, 2022

Google’s John Mueller affirmed that technical issues don’t generally cause a ranking loss after a core update. Mueller said that core update ranking problems are more associated with quality issues and offered examples of the kinds of perceived quality issues that a core update isn’t sensitive too.

Overhauled Website Just Prior to Core Update

The person asking the question wrote that they had performed a major update to a site just prior to a Google core algorithm update. After the update the website rankings crashed and stayed crashed for up to six months and still not recovered.

John Mueller Discussing Core Algorithm Updates

John Mueller discussing Google core algorithm updates Screenshot of John Mueller

This is the question that was asked:

“Our website was ranking well before we performed a design overhaul. Our timing was terrible, as a core update was released just after the launch, which had some issues with internal links.
We suspect Google reassessed the site quality at this time, but we could resolve the issues.
Our ranking and traffic dropped a lot and lost all rich snippets in the process and is in limbo for the last five, six months.
Do we wait for another core update for Google to assess our site quality again or does this happen when the website is re-crawled?”
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It’s Useful to Learn What a Core Update Is

In his answer, John made a recommendation and then offered two insights into what usually does not trigger a core update-related ranking drop.

Mueller started with the suggestion to research on what a core algorithm update is in order to be better able to diagnose why a site lost search visibility following a core update.

He recommended:

“So I think there are a few things here that come together.
But first of all, I would recommend checking out our blog post that we did about core updates. I think it’s called “What Site Owners Should Know About Core Updates,” something along those lines.
And it has a lot of information about core updates, especially about …the kinds of issues that we look into there and how things are resolved over time.
So that’s kind of the first thing I would do in a case like this.”
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Insight 1: Core Updates Use Data Collected Over Long Term

Mueller next offered the insight that the kind of issues that can cause a negative core update-related outcome are problems that are ongoing over the long term and not technical issues that result in a sudden and dramatic change.

The sound in the video cut out in the beginning part of Mueller’s answer.

“…the information that we use for core updates to understand the site, is something that’s collected more over the long term.
It’s not something where if, right when the core update launched you had a technical issue, then suddenly your site would fall into this problem.
It’s really something that is collected more over a longer period of time.
So that means if you are seeing any effects from a core update, that’s usually due to a longer period of time, where we’ve kind of run into issues that we’re looking at with regards to the core updates.”

Insight 2: Technical Issues Not Same as Quality Issues

The second insight is that technical issues aren’t generally what cause a core update related problem. Mueller pointed to more quality-related issues.

Mueller also pointed out that small technical issues like broken links aren’t generally the cause of core update ranking problems.

Mueller continued his answer:

“Also, with regards to technical issues, usually that’s not a trigger for core updates or kind of for core updates to, kind of, to not really know what to do with the website, because technical issues tend not to be the same as quality issues.
Obviously there can be some technical issues that, when a user looks at the website, kind of makes it impossible to actually use the website.
But if it’s just something small, then that’s usually not a big issue.
So if you have things like 404s on a page or some broken links, that wouldn’t be a reason for our quality algorithms to kind of jump in.
But there are lots of other things that our quality algorithms do look for, and they’re all in the blog post.
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So I would recommend taking a look at that.
With regards to the resolution after improving your website, that’s also mentioned in the blog post.
Some of these things will improve steadily over time as we reprocess your website.
And some of them do require that our quality algorithms take another run through the site and that might take a while for that to happen.”

Core Update Insights

John Mueller offered several helpful recommendations and insights about core algorithm update and loss of rankings.

First, it’s useful to become acquainted with Google’s Core Algorithm Update explainer.
Next he said that core updates use information about a website that is collected over the long term. This is something worth thinking about.
Lastly, Mueller noted that technical issues aren’t really in the same category as the typical quality issues that a core algorithm update tends to be about.

Citations

Read Google’s Core Algorithm Update Explainer

What site owners should know about Google’s core updates

Watch John Mueller answer the question at the 10:53 minute mark:

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SEO

Google Declares It The “Gemini Era” As Revenue Grows 15%

Published

9 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Max

Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, announced its first quarter 2024 financial results today.

While Google reported double-digit growth in key revenue areas, the focus was on its AI developments, dubbed the “Gemini era” by CEO Sundar Pichai.

The Numbers: 15% Revenue Growth, Operating Margins Expand

Alphabet reported Q1 revenues of $80.5 billion, a 15% increase year-over-year, exceeding Wall Street’s projections.

Net income was $23.7 billion, with diluted earnings per share of $1.89. Operating margins expanded to 32%, up from 25% in the prior year.

Ruth Porat, Alphabet’s President and CFO, stated:

“Our strong financial results reflect revenue strength across the company and ongoing efforts to durably reengineer our cost base.”

Google’s core advertising units, such as Search and YouTube, drove growth. Google advertising revenues hit $61.7 billion for the quarter.

The Cloud division also maintained momentum, with revenues of $9.6 billion, up 28% year-over-year.

Pichai highlighted that YouTube and Cloud are expected to exit 2024 at a combined $100 billion annual revenue run rate.

Generative AI Integration in Search

Google experimented with AI-powered features in Search Labs before recently introducing AI overviews into the main search results page.

Regarding the gradual rollout, Pichai states:

“We are being measured in how we do this, focusing on areas where gen AI can improve the Search experience, while also prioritizing traffic to websites and merchants.”

Pichai reports that Google’s generative AI features have answered over a billion queries already:

“We’ve already served billions of queries with our generative AI features. It’s enabling people to access new information, to ask questions in new ways, and to ask more complex questions.”

Google reports increased Search usage and user satisfaction among those interacting with the new AI overview results.

The company also highlighted its “Circle to Search” feature on Android, which allows users to circle objects on their screen or in videos to get instant AI-powered answers via Google Lens.

Reorganizing For The “Gemini Era”

As part of the AI roadmap, Alphabet is consolidating all teams building AI models under the Google DeepMind umbrella.

Pichai revealed that, through hardware and software improvements, the company has reduced machine costs associated with its generative AI search results by 80% over the past year.

He states:

“Our data centers are some of the most high-performing, secure, reliable and efficient in the world. We’ve developed new AI models and algorithms that are more than one hundred times more efficient than they were 18 months ago.

How Will Google Make Money With AI?

Alphabet sees opportunities to monetize AI through its advertising products, Cloud offerings, and subscription services.

Google is integrating Gemini into ad products like Performance Max. The company’s Cloud division is bringing “the best of Google AI” to enterprise customers worldwide.

Google One, the company’s subscription service, surpassed 100 million paid subscribers in Q1 and introduced a new premium plan featuring advanced generative AI capabilities powered by Gemini models.

Future Outlook

Pichai outlined six key advantages positioning Alphabet to lead the “next wave of AI innovation”:

Research leadership in AI breakthroughs like the multimodal Gemini model
Robust AI infrastructure and custom TPU chips
Integrating generative AI into Search to enhance the user experience
A global product footprint reaching billions
Streamlined teams and improved execution velocity
Multiple revenue streams to monetize AI through advertising and cloud

With upcoming events like Google I/O and Google Marketing Live, the company is expected to share further updates on its AI initiatives and product roadmap.

Featured Image: Sergei Elagin/Shutterstock

SEO

brightonSEO Live Blog

Published

1 day ago

April 25, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Hello everyone. It’s April again, so I’m back in Brighton for another two days of ~~sun~~, sea, and SEO!

Being the introvert I am, my idea of fun isn’t hanging around our booth all day explaining we’ve run out of t-shirts (seriously, you need to be fast if you want swag!). So I decided to do something useful and live-blog the event instead.

Follow below for talk takeaways and (very) mildly humorous commentary.

SEO

Google Further Postpones Third-Party Cookie Deprecation In Chrome

Published

1 day ago

April 25, 2024

Max

Close-up of a document with a grid and a red stamp that reads "delayed" over the word "status" due to Chrome's deprecation of third-party cookies.

Google has again delayed its plan to phase out third-party cookies in the Chrome web browser. The latest postponement comes after ongoing challenges in reconciling feedback from industry stakeholders and regulators.

The announcement was made in Google and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) joint quarterly report on the Privacy Sandbox initiative, scheduled for release on April 26.

Chrome’s Third-Party Cookie Phaseout Pushed To 2025

Google states it “will not complete third-party cookie deprecation during the second half of Q4” this year as planned.

Instead, the tech giant aims to begin deprecating third-party cookies in Chrome “starting early next year,” assuming an agreement can be reached with the CMA and the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

The statement reads:

“We recognize that there are ongoing challenges related to reconciling divergent feedback from the industry, regulators and developers, and will continue to engage closely with the entire ecosystem. It’s also critical that the CMA has sufficient time to review all evidence, including results from industry tests, which the CMA has asked market participants to provide by the end of June.”

Continued Engagement With Regulators

Google reiterated its commitment to “engaging closely with the CMA and ICO” throughout the process and hopes to conclude discussions this year.

This marks the third delay to Google’s plan to deprecate third-party cookies, initially aiming for a Q3 2023 phaseout before pushing it back to late 2024.

The postponements reflect the challenges in transitioning away from cross-site user tracking while balancing privacy and advertiser interests.

Transition Period & Impact

In January, Chrome began restricting third-party cookie access for 1% of users globally. This percentage was expected to gradually increase until 100% of users were covered by Q3 2024.

However, the latest delay gives websites and services more time to migrate away from third-party cookie dependencies through Google’s limited “deprecation trials” program.

The trials offer temporary cookie access extensions until December 27, 2024, for non-advertising use cases that can demonstrate direct user impact and functional breakage.

While easing the transition, the trials have strict eligibility rules. Advertising-related services are ineligible, and origins matching known ad-related domains are rejected.

Google states the program aims to address functional issues rather than relieve general data collection inconveniences.

Publisher & Advertiser Implications

The repeated delays highlight the potential disruption for digital publishers and advertisers relying on third-party cookie tracking.

Industry groups have raised concerns that restricting cross-site tracking could push websites toward more opaque privacy-invasive practices.

However, privacy advocates view the phaseout as crucial in preventing covert user profiling across the web.

With the latest postponement, all parties have more time to prepare for the eventual loss of third-party cookies and adopt Google’s proposed Privacy Sandbox APIs as replacements.

Featured Image: Novikov Aleksey/Shutterstock