Google Fred Update Information Ireland

On March 8th, 2017, site owners, SEO professionals, and webmasters began to become concerned as a lot of websites had seen massive decreases in traffic apparently overnight. It is understood that website traffic saw a massive 90% decrease in some cases. It seemed like Google had targeted low-quality content that was specifically created to generate more revenue. Google search console has indicated that it had affected multiple pages and keywords. Rankings had dropped by a page or more and in some cases even disappeared altogether on some of the most important competitive keywords. Read on to find out everything there is to know about the Fred update! 

Google Fred is an algorithm update that was implemented by Google. Google consistently adjusts and brings up to date its search algorithms throughout the year. The name Fred was jokingly given to the update by Google’s webmaster analytics expert Gary Illyes.

It is very different in name to other named algorithm updates because the name doesn’t mean anything. It simply means Google updates the core algorithms to deal with any issues, the name was simply just a joke. A lot of updates go unnoticed.

Google has not explained why this update had been implemented just like other big updates, for instance, the hummingbird that was brought in September of 2015. The purpose of the update was to target tactics that are linked to aggressive monetization. This means a low-value content and overload on ads that many sites were using, but in Googles view this negatively impacted the users’ experience.

In the aftermath of this update, professional SEO experts began to find out which website had been affected by the update. Fred’s intended purpose was to discipline sites that were prioritising monetization over the user experience. Many websites were affected for the following reasons:

·        Too many ads present

·        Content was Thin

·        Presence of UX barriers

·        Mobile problems

·        All sorts of topics created for ranking purposes

·        Misleading Ads (play or download button to get people to click)

·        Ads or affiliate links within the content

·        Too many PBNs (private blog network) links

·        Sites that are purposely there to increase revenue rather than answer the user’s search queries

If you saw a significant fall in your sites rankings you could have possibly been affected by Fred.

Whatever the reason is as to why your website was affected by Fred such as having too many ads present, thin content, and so on, there are many ways to help minimise the chances of your site be penalised by algorithmic changes in the future. The following procedures you should consider for essential ways of helping you sort out your website.

Your website will make a recovery provided you manage all UX problems, publish only quality content, and address all technical SEO matters that are present.

This is optional. It is important that you do a complete check on your whole website that means every page. You can perform a site audit check yourself or hire in the SEO experts. An SEO audit usually consists of checking all pages from SEO technical audit, site crawlability, website accessibility, duplicate content, semantic mark up, google analytics, keyword research, content strategy, website architecture, social media analysis, competitive analysis, and link profile analysis. Hiring the professionals to do this is the best option and it will save you a lot of time.

Focusing on the quality of the content and producing the very best content that you possibly can, this is what is going to get you the rankings. Google will reward websites that offer strong and relevant content. The more appropriate your content is, this will make the experience better for the user. It can be challenging for any marketing company, but the results will be greater in the long term. The following boxes should be ticked when it comes to quality content:

Having too many ads is not a practical resolution anymore. Having an oversaturation of ads on your website just lets Google know that you are more interested in viable profit than offering relevant and useful information to the users. It can damage your conversion rates and make your site less significantly appealing to potential customers. You are at greater risk of being penalised by having too many ads.

This is important in preparation for any future Google updates. A very useful and free tool that is available is Moz’s open site explorer. This is a great place to evaluate your link profile and see which links are strong and from reputable sources, and also which ones should not be used. Removing low-quality and broken links is a great way of protecting you from potential penalties and it will also make your website more user-friendly.

There is no simple answer to say how long it will take to improve and recover your website. A lot of sites will recover much quicker than others in a month and so on. Others will struggle and gain traffic in a few months. The quicker you get down to the issues and solve them, the sooner you will see a climb in your traffic again. Google updates can make changes very often some minor tweaks even the SEO experts wouldn’t notice. It is crucial to prepare for any potential updates like Fred and if you have been affected, then you should undoubtedly rectify these matters. Learn how to rank your website higher on Google here!