Posted On : 2021-07-19 18:06:47 PM
Overview
Google Launch Update July 2021
Google has declared that the rollout of the July 2021 Core Update has begun and it’s going to create its landslide impact on search results soon. The announcement remains similar to other Core Updates that came through the official Twitter handle of SearchLiaison. The update will take 1-2 weeks for the whole rollout but websites may start experiencing fluctuations within a few days, considering the usual pattern. The Core Updates are quality updates intended to assist websites with high-quality relevant content.
Google rarely says what is included in the core algorithm update. But Google has said that a core algorithm update is one that introduces changes across an extensive array of the indexing and ranking procedures. The July 2021 update was preceded by 2 unusual spam updates. Formerly, Google declared that it was fighting spam with a new anti-spam AI, so it’s not farfetched to speculate that Google may have started more efficient spam-fighting features that enable it to perform the task expeditiously.
Less country code top-level domains (ccTLD) Domain Crowding in Search Results?
When the same domain ranks repeatedly in the search results is known as Domain crowding. For a few search results sites with multiple country code top-level domains such as .tv, .uk, .ca domains tended to direct Google’s search results.
2021 July Update Speculation & Anecdotal Observations
- WebmasterWorld Update Discussion: Publishers and SEOs in the WebmasterWorld forum speculated on an extensive array of things that may have changed. There is an increase in People Also Ask (PAA), a query refinement feature created to get users to the answers they want to see. Another one is similarities in the ranking losses in images and the regular organic search engine results pages.
- Quality Links: It’s seen that solid on-page SEO and off-page SEO practices are paying off with stable rankings in many Facebook groups.
Low-Quality Sites in the Search Results?
There is also anecdotal evidence of a seeming increase in spam in Google’s search results since the recent spam updates that are persisting through the July 2021 Core Algorithm Update. Although Google is actively trying not to exhibit low-quality search results, arguably questionable search results continue to show up in Google.
Scraper Spam in Search Results
The spam pages that are ranking number 1 are generated from scraping Google’s featured snippets. Google says that websites that lost rankings do not have anything to affix. Those types of technical issues are not likely why a site typically loses ranking, so “fixing” those types of things seems to be what Google means when there is nothing to fix. On the other hand, there are things to be fixed.
Evaluate the Search Results to Understand Ranking Changes
Search experts have to review the search results to acquire a whole understanding of what changed & why it affected the websites that lost rankings. Several times Google’s updates change how Google understands what queries and/or web pages mean. The effect can be different sites moving up, sites that follow the algorithm's new understanding of what a user is looking for when they make a specific search query.
Here are some examples of how factors that are external to a website may negatively influence the rankings.
- Few sites may lose positions not as they did something bad but because the algorithm’s judgment of what is relevant changed.
- In other cases, Google may start query refinement features such as People Also Ask which can lower a web page from position two to a virtual position five while technically still position two.
- The people Also Ask feature can also mean that another site appearing within this feature may attain more traffic as it’s more topically relevant for the user making a particular query, acquiring traffic for a query it may not have otherwise been rewarded with.
- The site that dropped to below the People Also Ask didn’t do anything wrong and neither did the site that ranks in position one, which in theory may lose some traffic to one of the sites in the People Also Ask query refinement feature.
- Google might also start more FAQ-rich results which can impact site visibility in the search results (positively and negatively).
