This year Google has really outdone itself on SEO updates and we think they truly deserve their Christmas rest this year – if indeed they are resting!
They have made many changes this year to how they will rank your website, i.e. on which page your website will rank on a Google search. Ideally you want to be on page 1 to get the most results, however it can take a lot of expertise and effort to get there.
That’s why we have decided to update you on the 5 major changes in SEO Google has introduced this year. Enjoy!
The 2022 updates build on the previous page experience updates on mobile from June and August 2021, Core Web Vitals (LCP,FID & CLS) now applies to desktop rankings. If your website loads quickly it has the best chance of being benefitting from this update.
Core Web Vitals are a key part of Google’s latest ranking factor, also called page experience. This is based around how visitors experience your website, read more about it on our blog here.
1. May 2022 & September 2022 – Google’s Core Updates
These updates are broad changes to Google’s algorithm aimed to improve the ranking process. Core updates are not specific but can cause noticeable changes to a site’s ranking.
2. July 2022 & September 2022 – Product Reviews Updates
This update aims to reward product reviews with extensive research behind them. Sites with thin content around product reviews may have experienced ranking drops when this update was released.
3. October 2022 – Spam Update
This is an update to the part of Google’s algorithm which detects spam, just like all of the algorithm updates this is designed to make the quality of search results more relevant.
4. August & December 2022 – Helpful Content Updates
Google is now focusing on rewarding “people first” content rather than content created to try and manipulate search engines. This update is designed to improve rankings for websites where users have found what they are looking for. We have written about this before on our Google’s Helpful Content Update blog post.
5. 14th December 2022 – Link Spam Update
Google has made changes to its algorithm to better identify spammy links. If your website’s rankings have decreased after this update, it is likely that Google has determined that some of the links pointing to your site are spam. As a result, the credit that these links previously gave your site has been taken away.
That’s our quick round-up on the major SEO changes that Google have made this year.
If you need help with your ranking on Google, get in touch with our Google-partnered SEO experts here at Brace.
Call us: 01452 729953
Email us: hello@brace.co.uk
