Did the Google June 2021 Updates Impact Your Rankings?

Wow! In the past month, Google has been busy rolling out new updates to its Algorithm. That makes five Core updates since the beginning of June.

The big one to pay attention to is the Page Experience Update, but the others are.

• June Core Update: June 2
• Slander Targeting Update: June 10
• Page Experience Update: June 15
• Spam Algorithm Update: June 23
• July Core Update: July 1

You may have noticed an increase in your Google rankings after the latest website updates or you may be wondering what you can do to increase your website's rankings.

First, let's understand what Google's Page Experience Algorithm update is really about.

Google wants to reward websites that have the best user experience. Does your website load quickly on users' devices? Is it mobile friendly? Does it effectively use video and content to engage new visitors?

The Page Experience Update signals a major shift in the way Google looks at websites. Webmasters need to learn how to optimize for mobile devices, which is now more than half of all Internet users.

If you are starting to see your Google rankings drop off, or if you're looking to increase your rankings, here are a few steps to help improve your traffic.

1: Review and optimize your website speed

Site speed is the first way a website visitor experiences your website. You want to make a good first impression. So, make sure your site speed is acceptable by checking it with one of these free tools:

• ​Google PageSpeed Insights​
• ​GTmetrix​
• ​Pingdom Tools​

Simply enter your URL in the box below to have instant feedback on how well your site is performing. The tools all provide suggestions for ways you can improve performance based on the reason it may be slow.

2: Set up Google Search Console account

If you haven't already, go to Google Search Console and create an account. You will have to verify domain ownership. Google provides directions on how to complete this step or you can ask your website developer to do this task.

Once you have created your Google Search Console account, you can see your Core Web Vitals report to see if Google has found any speed or user experience errors with your site.

3: Check the competition

Take a look at the websites that are ranking in the top 3 search results for your relevant keywords. Review their design. Look at their sales funnels and note how you navigate your way around their website. Can you use some similar strategies? What type of content are they adding to their site, and should you consider doing the same?

The top results are the websites that Google thinks will be most useful to searchers, so by checking out your competition you can learn how best to serve your website users.

4: Update your content

Content optimization may feel like a never-ending task, but it is important to keep working on your website. It is important to keep your website readable and up-to-date. How often you update your website will depend on the type of business that you run and how evergreen the information is. But in every industry, there's always room to improve your content. Make it more thorough, more authoritative, and generally more helpful to the user.

Remember: You need your web page to be the best and most-useful page on the Internet for its keyword.

With the recent changes to Google’s Algorithm, it can be difficult for businesses to know how best to optimize their website. These four steps can help you improve your search rankings. If you need further assistance, please feel contact me to schedule a strategy session.

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