“Content is King” quote by Bill Gates is also followed by Google and many others. If technical fixing isn’t helping you recover from a broad core algorithm update, improve your content, said Google.
Google’s John Mueller talked about this in a Search Central SEO Office-Hour Hangout meeting on October 8, 2021.
After a core update, a fall in the ranking shows that your site is losing relevance in terms of queries it’s addressing (in Google’s Estimation).
The question was raised by Granit Doshlaku (a site owner) about recovering from a core update.
He said his ranking is not getting better as he expects it to be even after fixing all technical and user experience issues.
To Granit’s query, Google’s Mueller responded by stating that fixing technical issues is not always the only solution; on-page content is another major factor in ranking.
John Mueller on Recovering from Core Updates
Mueller said:
“It’s not so much that we would consider it a situation where you have to fix something. But rather, when it comes to relevance, if you work on improving the relevance of your website, then you have a different website, you have a better website.
So it’s not that we would switch back and say, oh, it’s like the issue is fixed, and we will change it back to the previous state.
But rather, you’re saying, well, this is a better website now, and we look at it and say, oh, it’s a better website. It’s not the same or comparable to before, so it would be kind of tricky to expect that it changes to the state it was back. But it’s a new website, and it’s a better website.
I think, especially with core updates, when you’re talking about recovery, it’s not so much you’re recovering, but rather Google is seeing that you have a better website and reacting to that.”
So, according to what Mueller said, after a core update, Google won’t put any site to their previous ranking. It is because the site after the core update is not similar to its old self. And the site will not regain its last ranking even after improving relevancy. Now, it’s a new and better website for Google.
What Will Help With Ranking Then?
It’s the overall website that Google looks at for ranking and not just one or two aspects.
Focusing on individual issues will not impress Google. Instead, make some significant changes to improve the content you are providing. The better the content, the more relevant your website is.
Mueller states it as:
“With the core updates, we don’t focus so much on just individual issues, but rather the relevance of the website overall.
And that can include things like the usability and the ads on a page, but it’s essentially the website overall.
And usually, that also means some kind of the focus of the content, the way you’re presenting things, the way you’re making it clear to users what’s behind the content. Like what the sources are, all of these things. All of that kind of plays in.”
Mueller asks to improve content with improving user experience But mainly changing everything around content to look good in Google’s Eyes.
Mueller ended the topic by saying:
“So just going in and changing everything around the content— I think you can probably get some improvements there.
But essentially, if you want Google to see your website as something significantly better, you probably also need to work on the content side.
Think about where might there be low-quality content, where might users be confused when they go to my website— and is that confusion something we can address with technical issues? With UX changes? Or do we have to change some of the content that we present?”
Hence, it is clear that Content is indeed a King.