Is your organic search traffic falling? Find out how to determine if it is due to Google’s June 2019 core algorithm update.
As bloggers, we want Google search to be simple–pick out a keyword, write some good content, and rank on the first page for that term.
But it isn’t. Google search is complex. Driven by its algorithm, Google looks at over 200 ranking factors.
We don’t know exactly what all those factors are because Google doesn’t publish them. Brian Dean from Backlinko published his complete list of ranking factors, but he tells us some of them are speculation.
How Does the Google Search Algorithm Work?
The company published a really good overview of how it works and what the key ranking factors are.
The bottom line is that Google wants to give a searcher what they’re looking for. If they think your post is the most likely to give the person the answer they’re looking for, your post will rank high.
The Google algorithm changes often. The Moz blog says that in 2018, Google reported 3,234 improvements–an average of 9 a day.
Most of these are very minor, and we don’t even know they’ve happened.
But there are major updates. In the past, we found out about these when people reported changes in their search traffic and visibility.
Everyone in the online world was surprised when, at the beginning of June, Google announced the release of a broad core algorithm update. They had never announced one before.
Danny Sullivan, Google’s public search liaison, said it was just a normal core update that they wanted to let people know about.
What Will Happen to Our Traffic?
The roll-out of the June 2019 Core Update began on June 3rd and was completed on June 7th. I’m writing this on June 15th, so the roll-out has been complete for a week now. The dust is still settling, but as with any update, there are winners and losers.
I agree with Adam Reimer who tells us, “Do not read anything.” He gives us several reasons why, but the primary reason is that your site is different than those reporting gains or losses. Just because something happened to a similar site doesn’t mean you’ll get the same results.
You really need to check the organic search traffic to your site to determine if you were affected by the update. Keep reading for instructions on how to do that.
Anecdotal Results
But I was curious as to what other bloggers were seeing, so I asked in several of the Facebook groups I’m in.
- A marketing/tech site reported no impact.
- A cocktail site reported that their search traffic stayed about the same, but they had two new keywords in the top 10 results.
- A DIY blog and some local blogs saw a slight increase.
- Some recipe blogs saw a very small dip.
- Some lifestyle blogs are reporting huge decreases, but my three lifestyle clients didn’t see a change.
Things get interesting in the travel niche. Eleven travel bloggers responded to my question. Five of them have seen decreases in their search traffic, and six of them have seen increases.
One travel blogger in particular who saw a huge decrease after Google’s March 2019 core update reports that her search traffic is on the rise and seems to be recovering from that update.
Is My Traffic Decrease Related to the June 2019 Core Update?
One of the easiest ways to find out if your traffic decrease is related to the algorithm update is to compare this year’s traffic to last year’s.
Start by going to Acquisition > All Traffic > Source/Medium. Click on google/organic.
Set your date range. I chose May 1, 2019 through yesterday, June 13, 2019.
Next, click the compare box and choose Previous Year from the drop down.
Click Apply. The default is set to Users. Click on the Users box, and select Sessions.
The points on the graph are days, but because traffic often fluctuates depending on the day of the week, it’s hard to determine a pattern. Change that to weeks, and it’s easier to see any drops.
If the blue line (for this year) is trending down, and the orange line (for last year) is doing the same thing, then you most likely weren’t impacted by the core update.
If the blue line is trending down more steeply than the orange line, it’s possible that your site was impacted by the update.
My Cub Scout blog is seeing a decrease in organic search, but that’s because of the seasonality of Cub Scouting. When you compare May 1st through June 13th of last year to this year, you can see that my sessions are dropping at the same rate as last year.
What Do I Do If My Site Was Impacted?
I’m afraid I have to tell you something you probably don’t want to hear. There’s really nothing specific you can do other than try to have the best quality site possible.
This post from Search Engine Roundtable references a talk that Google’s John Mueller gave in a webmaster hangout earlier today. In it, he said, “There is no specific thing where we’d be able to say you did this and you should have done that and therefore we’re showing things differently.”
Mueller mentioned a 2011 (!) post by Amit Singhal that was written after the Panda update. Singhal lists a series of questions that we could ask ourselves to determine if we have a “quality” site.
Mueller expanded this by suggesting that we have someone unrelated to our site answer those questions. I would take that one step further and ask a person who doesn’t have an online business or blog to review it. Most of our readers probably aren’t bloggers, so their answers would be most helpful.
Site Diversity Update
In the middle of the June 2019 Core Update, Google also rolled out their Site Diversity release. This change means that you probably won’t see more than one search result from the same site. If deems it relevant, you may see multiple results from the same site.
Whew! Lots going on in the organic search world, and June isn’t even half over yet.
Share what your site’s organic search traffic is doing in a comment below.
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