SMX East: Recovering From Core Updates - Lily Ray

@lilyraynyc
RECOVERING FROM
CORE UPDATES
SMX East | Lily Ray

@lilyraynyc
Lily Ray
SEO Director

@lilyraynyc
SeismicShiftsonGoogle

@lilyraynyc
YourMoney
YourLife

@lilyraynyc
The Wrath of Google’s Core Updates:
(medical site)

@lilyraynyc
(wellness site)

@lilyraynyc
(women’s health site)

@lilyraynyc
What does Google
say we should do
about core updates?

@lilyraynyc
“With core updates, we’ve changed
our calculations and found other pages that
we think are more relevant.
So it’s not a matter of doing anything wrong…
We just don’t think these pages are as
relevant as they originally were.”

@lilyraynyc
Ignoring
Google’s
advice for a
minute…

@lilyraynyc
Can you
recover from
a core update?
YES
.

@lilyraynyc
Can you
recover from
a core update?
…but it isn’t easy.
YES
.

@lilyraynyc
Recovery
takes time,
hard work,
and patience.

@lilyraynyc
Client Recovery Story

@lilyraynyc
rustworthiness
uthoritativeness
xpertise
Is
thesilverbullet?

@lilyraynyc
Technical
SEO Backlinks
Content
&UX

@lilyraynyc
Something that matters
for every single website.
isNOT

@lilyraynyc
Knitting Celebritygossip
Pethealth Cancertreatment

@lilyraynyc
bit.ly/2nZBRiX
Methodology, Disclaimers & Results:
Analyzed 64 winners & losers from past year’s
algorithm updates

@lilyraynyc
10 Qualities ofTop Performing
Websites
…and things you CAN fix.

@lilyraynyc
Author bios are great,
and you should use them,
but leveraging help
from real experts
is even better.
1. (Real) Expertise

@lilyraynyc
Author Bio
(Losing Nutrition Site)

@lilyraynyc
Expert
Reviewers
(Winning Sites)

@lilyraynyc
2. Aggressive Ads
“The Page Layout
algorithm is still
live and still
working.”
– Gary Illyes, Pubcon 2019

@lilyraynyc
• Limit ads above the fold
• Make ads easy to close
• Ads should not distract from the
main content
• Ads can create performance
issues; pay attention to load
times
Google’s Recommendations
For Using Ads:

@lilyraynyc
Winning companies
clearly list their awards
and accolades.
They’re also more likely to have a
Wikipedia page and/or Honcode
certification (for health sites).
3. Trust Signals

@lilyraynyc
Winning sites have clear
editorial policies and
advertising disclosures.
4. Editorial & Ads Policies

@lilyraynyc
Healthline’sAd&SponsorshipPolicy
1. We choose the ads.
2. We don’t endorse any products.
3. We will not accept certain types of ads.
4. We clearly distinguish ads from editorial content.
5. We clearly distinguish between sponsored and non-
sponsored content.
6. We clearly distinguish content that is part of a co-
branded program.

@lilyraynyc
Top performing YMYL
pages use high-quality
editorial standards and
demonstrate great writing
skills.
5. Improving Content Quality

@lilyraynyc
Jumplinks
Thoroughly researched
Contains citations to
trusted sources
Shows both sides of
the story
Supports claims with
evidence
Sufficient content
depth
Captions on all images
Disclaimers on ads
Good structure &
optimized headlines
Links to related articles
Reading level: 9.6
Non-distracting ads

@lilyraynyc
External links can
help - not hurt -
your performance, if
they are to trusted,
reputable sources.
External Links

@lilyraynyc
Google Search Console is Your Friend
Prioritize your strategy
for improving content by
using Google Search
Console to identify the
pages and keywords that
saw the biggest declines.

@lilyraynyc
Warning: this advice is
controversial, but it comes
directly from Google’s
Guidelines.
6. Content Accuracy &
Scientific/Medical Consensus

@lilyraynyc
Contradicting Consensus = Lowest Quality Rating
Google mentions “consensus” 20 times in the Quality Guidelines

@lilyraynyc
4 Natural Medicine Sites:

@lilyraynyc
Be careful mixing informational
and transactional content,
particularly on YMYL pages that
are intended to provide
information or advice.
7. Avoiding Overly
Salesy Language

@lilyraynyc
Informational page about “Rosacea”
Link to his main product

@lilyraynyc
Calls to Action in Informational YMYL Content
Used to rank #2 for “fasting for diabetes”…
…now ranks #94.

@lilyraynyc
Recovering from core updates
requires more than improving
content quality and E-A-T.
Your technical SEO health also
matters.
8. Technical Issues

@lilyraynyc
• Crawling, indexation and/or
rendering issues
• Coverage report in GSC
• Page speed
• AMP errors
• Manual actions (Schema, link spam,
hacked content)
• Broken pagination
Technical Issues

@lilyraynyc
Core updates look at your
overall site quality. Low-quality
pages can bring down the
quality of the overall domain.
Noindex or remove them.
9. Noindex Low-Quality Content

@lilyraynyc
Remove (or Noindex) Low-Quality Content
John Mueller paraphrase: Filter out the junk from the high-quality content, search
engines evaluate the domain as a whole. (Source)

@lilyraynyc
Monitor the SERP to see if
Google decided your targeted
keywords are now best
answered with localized results.
10. Local Intent

@lilyraynyc
10. Local Intent?
• Check if your keywords switched to a
local intent:
• Local 3-pack displayed
• Localized organic results
• Google appending city names to
title tags
• Your page may no longer be the most
relevant listing among local results

@SpeakerName
Share these #SMXInsights on your social channels!
• E-A-T is just one aspect of core update recovery, content and
technical SEO matter too.

@SpeakerName
• Avoid mixing informational and transactional YMYL content.

@SpeakerName
• Avoid mixing informational and transactional YMYL content.
• Check the “intent” of your keywords in the SERP to ensure Google
hasn’t decided other results are more relevant.

@lilyraynyc
SEE YOU AT THE NEXT SMX!
Thank You!
Slides: https://bit.ly/2Wv6cTz

SMX East: Recovering From Core Updates - Lily Ray

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