Wrapping Up Google Updates of 2019

Every year there are changes made to the way that Google works. These updates often come unannounced, and many have far-reaching effects when it comes to search engine rankings. In 2018, Google made over 3000 changes to the way that their search engine works. In 2019, some large and small changes had an effect on the way that digital marketers evaluate the success of their campaigns. When a Google update can happen at any time, it’s important to have a firm view of past changes so that you know what to expect, as well as what to change in your existing SEO setup. Here are the minor and major Google updates that happened in 2019.

February 6th, 2019 – Unnamed Google Update

One of the problems with Google updates is that they are not always announced and they are not always confirmed. The first of the significant Google updates of 2019 was one example. Often, it only becomes apparent that there has been an update when a website starts to see traffic and SERPs shift.

What update?

Although there were sites that were affected worldwide, this February Google update appeared to largely affect UK based search queries. The sectors most affected were:

• Finance
• Law
• Government

These are the websites that rely most heavily on EAT (expertise, authority, and trust). As the update started to become more noticed, US queries involving food and drink, education, and employment were also found to be targeted.

What happened?

Many of the websites that were affected by the unnamed update were still trying to recover from the Medic Update in late 2018. While only a few sectors were targeted in February, many sites felt the effects of the update. However, this was a minor update and the vast majority of global internet users felt no effects.

What does this mean?

If you work in an industry that relies heavily on EAT, then the best plan of action is to ensure that you only have high-quality content on your web pages. Consider a content audit, and brush up on the guidelines provided by Google for EAT. Make sure that you:

• Are careful about your use of keywords
• Use an SEO writing assistant
• Consider using an on-page SEO checker
• Prioritize high-quality content generation

It’s also a good idea to check that your content author biographies are detailed and descriptive. The goal is to let Google know that your content creators have the right level of experience and authority on their given subjects. Of course, even if you saw no visible effects of the February 2019 update, these actions are worth taking. They will improve your website, your SEO, and your overall online visibility.

March 1st – Unnamed Google Update

For a brief period in March, webmasters noticed significant shifts in website traffic and SERP positioning. One of the most anomalous of the Google updates of 2019, it remains unclear exactly what this update was intended to do.

What update?

Although the update is yet to be confirmed by Google, the visible effects of it were very clear. For a brief period, search engine results pages showed a staggering nineteen organic results on page one. While these were largely based on queries that involved in-depth articles, the overall effect caused chaos for the day.

What happened?

It’s very possible that the 19-page SERPs were a glitch by Google that was very quickly rectified. Since Google can often be very quiet about their updates (and their mistakes), it’s very difficult to know what caused the anomalous behavior of Google’s first page.

What does this mean?

Very little. SERPs have returned to normal, and traffic and rankings have also returned to how they were before the suspected update. However, it’s a useful reminder that checking your Google rankings every day can provide valuable information. If this had been a new approach to the front page of Google results pages, then brands that noticed it quickly would be much more informed and timely in their response.

March 12th – Core Update

The first big confirmed Google update in 2019 was a core update. The effects caused immediate upheaval. Those affected by the update were those sites with a focus on sensitive subjects. Financial and YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) queries were the most impacted.

What update?

This was the first time that Google announced and named an update in 2019 (although the name was simply March 2019 Core Update). The intention of the core update became very clear almost immediately.

What happened?

Health websites were the most affected. While there were winners and losers in terms of getting better performance on SERPs, the first sites to notice a significant decline in online visibility were everydayhealth.com and their competitor verywellhealth.com. Like the February 6th update, the focus was on the prioritization of EAT.

What does this mean?

It wasn’t just health brands that were affected by the core update. Niche YMYL sites felt a significant impact. Trust was a vital component, so the YMYL brands that have taken the time to develop a stronger profile and a broader range of topics were very much benefitted by the update. This again highlights the need for marketers to focus on brand authority and building trust. However, one of the main changes of this update was the growing importance of user signals. Lower bounce rates, CTRs, and pages per visit all became noticeably more influential. These are the signals that are often the hardest to develop. The priority for website owners needs to be:

• Building trust: Growing a brand and showcasing your expertise is critical. Make sure that your content topics are broad enough to catch people and expert enough to keep them on your website for longer.
• Quality Rater Guidelines: It’s a huge document (164 pages), but the Google Quality Rater Guidelines should be read and then used to create a website that ticks all of Google’s boxes.
• User intent: All of your pages need to meet the expectations of your users. You need to answer the questions they have and provide value. While this is not new, the core update has made this more important than ever.

April 5th – Deindexing Bug

Another confirmation from Google after a bug resulted in dropped pages from the Google search index. The result was very dramatic for around 4% of websites. Those pages found that they were no longer showing up on search results.

What update?

The Deindexing bug was quickly rectified by the update, but Google made the decision to announce the details of the error and then produced detailed plans that laid out the steps they would take should a similar bug occur again.

What happened?

Although the cause of the bug remains unknown, the result was immediate and deeply felt. While deploying a routine search index overhaul, a small percentage of websites were not included in the transition. For those websites that were affected, there was a huge loss of both traffic and revenue.

What does this mean?

The first sign that was noticed was via the Google Search Console tool, which showed website owners that there were inconsistencies. Search metrics started to flatline, but Google says that the issue was identified and addressed within days. However, it wasn’t until the 11th of April that the indexing bug was resolved, and a further two weeks for the Google Search Console to be repaired. This update is one that won’t affect website owners moving forward. Google has not only repaired the bug but has also announced more rapid communication processes should something similar happen again. This was shown in May when a smaller bug occurred and was quickly communicated and fixed.

June 3rd – June 2019 Core Update

This was an update that was announced in advance by Google. However, they gave very little in the way of details. Many of the sites that were affected by the March core updates saw similar changes in their rankings and traffic. Publishers in the UK were again hit hard.

What update?

Websites that already had high EAT value were affected dramatically, with some losing rankings, traffic, and revenue. Again, this focus on EAT confirms Google’s efforts to continue providing only the best value to its users. However, many sites that have a high level of EAT were affected negatively.

What happened?

This update was much faster than the average Google core update. Rather than taking weeks to launch, the June core update was carried out in just five days. The main issue of this update was that previously established and well-known websites saw the most negative effects. This means that the development of an EAT-focused website may not be as effective at maintaining rank positions as previously thought.

What does this mean?

This change was a Broad Core Algorithm Update, so it covered a very wide range of topics. Many webmasters focused on improving EAT, but the fact is there was very little that they could do to minimize the effects of the update. Google announced that there was nothing to ‘fix’, and that those websites that were negatively affected don’t have anything wrong with them. While any change in your metrics should result in a review of your quality and authority, Google updates aren’t always about EAT. However, larger updates such as this one can be useful. If you know when they started, you can analyze your traffic levels and identify the impact to your website resulting from those changes. This can be a useful means of identifying future issues and making sure that your pages are as high value as possible.

June 6th – Site Diversity Update

Another confirmed update by Google, the site diversity update was intended to prevent users from seeing more than one listing from the same website after any search query. This update happened in the middle of the core update, and the effects were immediate for many previously high ranking brands.

What update?

A diversity update helps users get a wider range of answers to their queries. This prevents one entity in any sector completely dominating the SERPs. However, this doesn’t affect all search queries, with branded queries in particular still showing multiple instances of results from the same domain.

What happened?

SERP diversity was immediately improved, and website owners confirmed very minimal effects. While there were fluctuations, the majority of these were expected and they eventually stabilized.

What does this mean?

For those in charge of SEO, the focus on SERP diversity means that they should be distributing content across a wider variety of platforms and channels. The more that you can spread out your content on different mediums, the less impact diversity updates will have on you.

July 12th – Maverick Update

Although this update is unconfirmed by Google, it has been tentatively named ‘Maverick’ by SEO experts. This was a minor update that had very little effect on rankings and SERP performance.

What update?

The Maverick update did see some sites experiencing some volatility in SERPs. The consensus is that Maverick was simply a slight rectification of the Diversity Update in June. However, the impact was generally minimal.

What happened?

There were no specific sectors affected by Maverick. The generally low impact of the Google update makes it even more likely that it was simply a correction of the diversity update, or possibly the June Core update.

What does this mean?

Without Google confirming or denying the update, the only real way that SEO experts can respond to this change is to continue producing high-quality content.

September 24th – September 2019 Core Update

Unimaginative update name aside, this Google update only appeared to affect those websites that had been impacted by previous core updates. Very few details have been confirmed by Google, but YMYL sites continue to be the hardest hit by algorithm changes and core updates.

What update?

This update only took two days for a full rollout. There were some immediate fluctuations in site traffic metrics across the board, but these were generally minimal. Previous Google updates have had much more dramatic results, both positive and negative.

What happened?

Health and finance brands were the most impacted by the September update, suggesting once again that Google is targeting the value offered by established names in those sectors.

What does this mean?

KeywordKeywords are the words and phrases that potential customers might search for to find your business. use remains a priority, with those sites using more high-value keywords being less affected by the core update. Google has been very quiet about the update but did issue community advice that advises brands on how to cope with core updates more easily. As with all core updates, make sure that you check your site traffic and SERPs to identify if you have been affected.

October 22nd – BERT Update

This was an upgrade to the Google algorithm and the hardware that supports the BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers), a natural language processingNatural language processing is the ability of a computer to understand human speech in the form of sentences. model. BERT is very valuable to both users of Google and the search engine itself, as it allows for a more natural language search and more developed contextual understanding.

What update?

A lot of search queries rely on context to be understood more fully by search engines. That context has been notoriously challenging for search engines, and BERT has been highly influential in terms of providing more fully comprehensive SERPs based on a more in-depth understanding of contextual nuance and long-form search queries.

What happened?

Put simply, the BERT update improves the ability of Google to understand search queries. The English language is notoriously difficult, with different words meaning different things depending on the context in which they are used. BERT aims to tackle this, but the effects of the upgrade saw many websites lose out on traffic.

What does this mean?

There is a lot of misinformation about the impact of BERT. The key takeaway is that there are very few changes that need to be made to your SEO after the update. Many sites are declaring that the key to improved BERT performance is by using long-tail keywords, but there is no evidence that this is the case. If your traffic was negatively affected by the BERT update then clear content should be your priority. More focused content focus and its organization are the main areas to address. However, if you have seen little to no traffic changes after BERT then there is little that needs to be done.

These were the most important and influential Google updates of 2019. Although Google rarely announces updates, the SEO community is quick to notice them. Keeping up to date with Google updates is crucial, whether they impact your brand or not. Only by keeping up with the demands of search engines can a business hope to maintain it’s SEO levels and ensure ongoing online visibility.