If someone has covered the algorithm updates for a longer time span, then he/she must accept that the update by Google on 1st August 2018 has been the biggest of all as many sites which people use to visit were strongly affected and some of them even shut down instantly.
On the very first day of August, Google declared one of the biggest update ever- Broad Core Algorithm Update. The repeated days of heavy ranking flux was also confirmed by the algorithm trackers and webmaster chatter. The effects on organic search results and the local results (map listing) seemed when this algorithm update appeared.
There is an unending number of sites which had the impact of this update, some of the majorly-affected fields- medical, health, fitness and healthy lifestyle space. There were some other niches too which got affected in minor terms including e-commerce, insurance, B2B (Business to Business (, entertainment, finance, deal sites etc. The reason for algorithm influence on e-commerce is due to the sale of health/medical related products on the sites so the impact grew from 42% to 50%.
What Are the Observations of The Revolution Update?
No one can deny that it is an update with a huge impact on the web services. It is believed that March 9 update is almost nothing in comparison to the update on August 1. It is not often that Google announces its algorithm updates but Danny Sullivan who used the Search Liaison twitter account updates the tweet about the update of August 1. The observations from the algorithm applied till now include:
Huge Impact on Temperature by Vertical
It is true that the algorithm update had the majority effect on YMYL sites (Your Money or Your Life) and undesirable impact on health and wellness sites. The keywords in the category of Health seemed to be mostly influenced by the algorithm as it had a daily average temperature of 124°F and came instantly down on August 1 even that it was over 100°F then also. This is obviously not a situation of blasting down one category and leaving others untouched. While the other categories were showing high temperature, the pattern got shifted during the separate three days of heavy flux. Therefore, verticals were affected by this multi-day update.
Search Quality Rating Guidelines – An Update on Google With Various Aspects
For creating an ease for the humans (Quality raters) in an online content evaluation and rendering feedback, Google has launched a completely revised version of the 164 page set of guidelines.
With this update, Google has focused on some areas for the raters. Google has signed a bond with over 10,000 search quality raters across the globe for the calculation of search results effectively. Raters are made the chief to conduct actual searches, derived from the real searches that occur on Google. After the evaluation, the top results were marked and rated as the quality pages.
A good and reputed content created by people derives a great sense and knowledge, however, Google ranks that high-quality content in comparison to the content which has no relevance and quality. This is because; Google wants its users to have a great experience while on search. It is not just limited to the written content, but videos and social media do come under this. With this addition of update, Google ensures that writers with high-proficiency get a platform they deserve with higher rank and trash should remain out of the ambiance.
Google is focusing more deeply on refined and subtle forms due to the increase in spam. Google is having a clear-cut war against clickbait. Under this, they ask the raters to rate sites low where they find anything irrelevant, too much sensational and unmatched content related to the topic mentioned.
Another revolutionary change initiated by the Google is that it wants the raters to aim at “beneficial purpose” of the content. There are many sites that blindly create content only for Google and forget the users who actually are the king. All they do is incorporate lined-up keywords to create the ranking. Google, in actual, wants its raters to give it a thought whether the mentioned content has a beneficial purpose or not. And, this is a very crucial point that should be considered deeply by the owner of the site, content writer, and SEO before making any uploading. Direct alternations in the Google results cannot be initiated by the quality raters. Low-quality marking by the raters does not cause any ban or loss of ranking for that particular site. Instead, the rankings given by the quality raters are put into use for making an improvement in the Google’s search algorithms, an automated system used to generate ranking on the pages.
As the time goes, the data collected on the basis of rating made by the quality raters have a great impact on the pages marked with the low-quality spot but the algorithm also has a great effect on the pages which has not been reviewed till date.
When these guidelines were generated and made public, from that time onwards they have been got revised several times. The current changes have put more focus on the subjects like tracking fake news, tendentious or disturbing content and other aspects that Google apprehends as trouble-maker when incorporated in search results.
A Quick Look into the Updates Covered by The Google In the Year 2018
Mobile Speed Update
In 2018, the update which took the place over was of mobile speed. According to Google, the loading time of a website is a far proven way for ranking on the basis of mobile search results. This Mobile Speed Update made by the Google is only impactful for the websites which have a slow loading speed that in turn improves the experience of the users.
Rollout of Mobile-First-Index
For the first time ever, Google announced that websites on the mobiles are going to be used for creating the Google Index. This update affects only a few websites. Google does not reveal about how long this will last or get completed.
Core Algorithm Update
A Google update was suspected by many webmasters around the time. After some time, this update got an official confirmation by the Google. This leads to creating major fluctuations in the search results. The winning websites get an outstanding boost and losers again see a downfall.
