Search Ranking Update
Recently, Google made some changes to their algorithm that has effected some Organic SEO traffic. This change was made in combination with the helpful content update they made in August. Our friends over at Search Engine Round Table wrote a great article with information about the recent Google Update below.
by Barry Schwartz | Google Search Algorithm Updates | Sep 14, 2022
Google may have also pushed out a local search ranking update around September 7th. This is in addition to the helpful content update between August 25th and September 9th and the September 2022 core update that kicked off on September 12th. Let’s not forget, we are on the verge of a fifth product reviews update.
A Local Search Forums thread has a bunch of local SEOs reporting on changes to their client rankings on or around September 7th. Keep in mind, that this would be unrelated to any core update or helpful content update and is likely its own thing – if it is a thing.
Joy Hawkins, an experienced local SEO, said on the forums “I’m hearing a few cases like this lately” where local rankings have changed significantly. “Analyzing ranking drops is really time-consuming and needs a pretty in-depth knowledge of the site, business, and competitors so I’m hesitant to offer advice on this. I would suggest looking to see if their organic ranking dropped as well or if it’s just the local pack rankings,” she added.
Some are saying this is just impacting the local pack and not the other organic results. “It is just the local pack rankings that have dropped, organic rankings are still doing very well,” one person said.
Another company said their listing dropped out of the local pack on September 9th, two days after the other. “I can confirm the issue started Friday 09/09/2022 so we were showing up before then,” they wrote. Whereas someone else said it was on September 6th, “I have a SAB client that saw a complete drop from maps and local map pack as well. The drop seemed to start on September 6th, and now everything is reporting zero views of the GBP,” they wrote.
Does This Mean Our Site Is Broken?
No. In a recent post from Google Search Central they did explain that, pages that experience a change after a core update do NOT have anything wrong to fix. That said, we understand that those who may not be performing as well after a core update change may still feel they need to do something which again, is not the case.
Google suggests focusing on ensuring that you are offering the BEST content you can on all pages, posts, etc. That’s what our algorithms seek to reward. So again, this does not mean there is anything wrong with your site or even the Optimization Strategy that you may have in place. This is more of an update for GOOGLE. Always remember to aim to create helpful, reliable people-first content. See our help page on how to create helpful, reliable people-first content.
Read more on the “Google Local Search Ranking Update” Here
Categorised in: The Shoreline Blog
This post was written by Shoreline Content Team
