To site owners aiming to recover from August’s core algorithm update, Google’s John Mueller advises enhancing the relevance of content.
This subject was discussed in a Google Webmaster Central hangout last week in response to a user’s question:
“Regarding the last big core update – how soon can we see sitewide changes after we fix all of the content that didn’t satisfy intent? Is that like three months? Or is that longer?”
In addressing these core algorithm updates, Mueller emphasizes that it’s not about fixing specific problems. Instead, Google focuses on the relevance of content to users’ queries. People’s needs evolve, which may cause a site’s content to become less relevant over time.
Site owners should critically evaluate the content that experienced a drop in rankings after the August update. They should think about how to make this content more pertinent to the queries it previously performed well for.
However, even after improving the content, it may still take some time for Google to process the changes. Mueller describes this as an ongoing process without a set timeline. Therefore, the vital step site owners can take is improving content relevance. From there, the time it takes for changes to appear in search results can vary. It’s important not to become discouraged during this process.
Hear the full discussion in the video below starting at the 10:09 mark.
“So, in general, the bigger updates that we do around search like this core update aren’t about us evaluating sites and saying ‘this is bad and needs fixing.’ Instead, it’s about assessing sites and saying ‘maybe this isn’t as relevant as it used to be.’
As a webmaster, that means you can decide to make your site more relevant. But from our viewpoint, it’s not just about fixing something that’s broken by changing a few lines for everything to return to normal. It’s about demonstrating relevance for different queries, and these changes require time for our algorithms to recognize.
Understanding a whole site’s relevance is one part, whereas understanding how your pages are relevant is another. These processes take time, and there’s no definite timeline. It’s essentially a continuous effort where we review, process, reindex pages, and reassign signals constantly. There’s no fixed timeline where everything is updated at once.”
