The Biggest Google Updates for SEO 2018, You Should be Aware Of!
The August month has led to a large amount of changes and news around the way about how Google is ranking your content and how it is tracking all the activities.
In this update, Google has gone through different ways it ranks all the crawled content and make sure which sites are actually reputable and accordingly improved their ranking so that users can easily rely and feel comfortable about using it.
Another upcoming update shows how the users can optimize particular type of article, by making use of SCHEMA, to show in very precise way in Google’s SERP.
We have also looked the controversy which recently occur that companies are tracking the location in spite of turning off the setting that should prevent Google from doing so.
Looking to know more about Google Updates! Keep following the write-up and find out what are the meaning of these updates and how to react upon it.
Google Core Algorithm Update (Google “Medic”)
On 1st August, Google has released broad core algorithm update. Since then, many reacted in frustration to the update, feeling clueless and confused and scared how the update would affect their SEO.
In spite of the angry mob of SEO experts, this update is not only the one that Google could easily disclose to its audience because it is the one that affected its core functionality. This means that Google has transformed the importance or now focusing on its core ranking factors – the secret juice that tells how the Google ranks your content. Over the next few days, people started seeing the changes Google has made and started analysing how the update has affected the content and the ranking. The update gets completed on August 8th.
But then, an interesting thing has happened. Search Engine Round Table posted a survey providing the details on how the update impacted the website of people along with other queries related to URL, keyword etc.
With this, the update has now been called as “Google Medic” due to the high impact it had on this sector. If you are looking a solution for this update, then there are no chances because there’s none, also one should now focus on creating a quality and great content. And over time, your content may rise as compared to other pages.
Google is tracking your Every Movement
The Associated Press reported that Google can track your location even if it is turned off. If you are using Google services on iPhone or Android, then Google will save your location even if you do change your privacy setting.
By default, Google can keep an eye on you and your location if you are using Google Maps or checking a weather tracker. This helps the company to see time-stamped trail following the location.
This database can be used for targeting or retargeting purposes for ads but can also be used for more creative uses like one can locate specific device that may present near crime scene.
Also, it seem natural that if you turned off this functionality on the phone, you will be free of tracking. When asked a representative to give a comment on this seemed flaw by saying:
There are multiple ways that Google can opt for location to improve the experience of people including Web, Location History and App Activity and through device supported Location Services. We have given clear descriptions of these tools and robust controls so that people can easily turn on or off as per need and delete histories whenever required.
If someone is looking to stop the location markers then it can be stopped by using “Web and App Activity” setting. This will help in preventing activity on the device from being saved to the account but will not stop Google from gathering other location indicators.
Google FAQs, Q&A and How – Tos now in Search Results Snippet
Featured Snippet is one of the popular iterations of Google that allows the benefit of one article being ranked 0 above other results.
In Singapore, an image has been captured at Google event which is showing an example of 3 new different snippet (FAQs, Q&A, and Hows-Tos) and how they will appear in SERP.
Google’s Spokesperson Stated:
“We always look for different ways and try hard so that we can provide most relevant and useful results to users. Recently we have introduced new methods that help users to understand whether the responses of given Q&A or forum site could have the best answer for the question. By displaying the preview of the solutions of such queries onto Search, we are helping users in identifying which source is likely to have the information they are looking for. We are now currently associating with partners to experiment with ways to surface similar previews for FAQs and How-to content.
As marketers, we need some time to review the content which carries the potential to use these mark-up tags. If you take a look on schema website you will see that there is a documentation created on all the three found below:
Your best challenge would be to start reviewing these mark-ups and implement in real life accordingly, this will help in improving the ranking than your competitors.
