Google is known to roll out frequent updates to keep up the healthy competition in its platform, weed out the undeserving money-spinning sites and honor those that add value. Since March 8, 2017, there is a sense of unrest in the SEO community, and the main reason behind this is the release of Google Fred update. There has been a lot of controversy surrounding this new update which cost some websites 50-60 percent of their organic traffic and some sites even lost 90 percent of the traffic overnight.
Google does not quickly confirm an update these days, but after a lot of speculation, several spokespersons from Google have hinted that there has been a major update recently. While some sites that were topping the charts and enjoying a good amount of organic traffic suddenly dropped down from the picture, it is interesting to note that sites that had a proper SEO plan in place to improve, its quality soared high in their rankings.
Who is Impacted and How?
A few recent articles and our own analysis give as a really good idea about what Google hopes to achieve with this update and what are the type of sites that are most affected. Upon reviewing the data regarding the number and type of sites that have been impacted by this update, it can be concluded that there are a few main deciding factors about the sites that have been influenced and they are:
- Sites with a low-quality link profile – a spammy link profile and/or non-relevant links
- Sites with too many ads
- Sites with little value or thin content that does not give any value to readers
- Affiliate sites that only aim to make money
Our research and analysis have shown that pages with low-quality backlinks are taking a drastic hit with this Google algorithm update. But let’s, also, dig a little deeper to understand – what are the so called ad-heavy low-value content sites that have been most heavily impacted by the recent Google update. These are sites that have been designed with the sole purpose to get more traffic in order to maximize revenue. The content is not focused on adding value to the users, and instead, they simply want users to click on the ads or affiliate links so that they get paid. However, it is also very important to understand another thing that most of those sites have in common and that is a low-quality link profile, quantity over quality and relevancy.
If you come across a site with the following traits then you can be sure that it has been affected by the Google Fred update:
- Too many ads or affiliate links on the site making it tough to read the actual content
- Lots of keywords stuffed in the content, making it sound unnatural
- Content has no video or image. Instead, they are presented in text or article style.
- Content aimed mainly at generating revenue and does not solve any query
Do you think that your site may have been adversely affected by this update and your site doesn’t possess the traits mentioned above? Then, most likely, your site has a low-quality/non-relevant backlink profile.
How to Avoid the Google Fred Update?
Google does not have any problem with sites having affiliate links, but it has an objection to sites with the sole purpose of becoming a container for ads and affiliate links. So, if you are an affiliate, keep that in mind. Also, if you own a business site, stay away from cheap SEO services that build 100s of backlinks and link pyramids. Remember, the quality and relevancy of the links pointing to your site is far more significant than the total number of links. To reverse the impact of the Google Fred update on your business sites and to protect your sites from future updates, you need to seriously consider hiring a reliable Vancouver SEO company such as Slavtech Marketing.