It’s widely thought that Google rolls out many updates to its algorithm every year.

There are thought to be over 200 updates per year; however, not all of these will be as large or impact the SERPs as the more significant “Google Core Updates.”

Therefore, when most of these updates are rolled out, the “ranking flux” is sometimes minimal, and the various SEO keyword tracking tools might not even pick them up.

However, the significant updates, such as the Google core updates, tend to be much larger, and the swings in where your business ranks can be dramatic.

However, after a core update, it’s important not to make sudden or drastic changes to your website or off-page SEO. Such changes could cause your website’s ranking to fluctuate or drop altogether.

Instead, it’s like a storm: You must let it pass and work out where you stand. That’s because ranking flux could move your website from page 1 to page 3, yet after the update, after the “ranking flux” has passed well, you could find yourself back on the first page. So, after a big update, sit back and let the storm pass before making on-page or off-page changes.

 

Can you tell us more about how Google’s search algorithm works?

We always describe Google’s algorithm as a masterpiece at this marketing agency.

Its algorithm, which incorporates machine learning and AI, has been perfected for a long time. For example, in the early days of Google PageRank, backlinks were mainly used as a ranking factor. Fast forward to 2025, and well over 200 ranking factors are used. Plus, with machine learning, Google better understands whether that page or website answered the shopper’s question.

For example, Google’s algorithm is likely to consider bounce rates and website dwell time when determining where a particular business should rank in Google’s search engine results pages.

If you want your business to rank on page one of Google, all companies must do is follow Google Webmaster Guidelines.
People first

For your business to appear on page one of Google, content marketing must centre around offering top-quality information and advice to real humans.

 

Now you might be thinking, who else would we be writing it for if it wasn’t real humans?

Well, for a long time, various SEO agencies have been writing content marketing and adding on top of the on-page SEO to get that page to rank on page one of Google by following a set formula.

What do we mean by that? Calculating silly metrics, such as keyword density formulas, and then lacing those keywords within the text to meet a 3% target is a complete waste of time.

A shopper would read the text and see it written unnaturally. The advice would seem poorly written, and a human, a shopper, would see it as not offering helpful advice. It’s, therefore, just an attempt by the business to get the company to rank on the first page.

However, when Google looks at engagement metrics, such as the bounce rate and dwell time, it will see that a poorly written page doesn’t hold the readers’ interest for that long. So those pages move down Google’s ranks, and the businesses with good engagement, i.e., high dwell times, move up Google’s ranks.

 

Spam

We do not discuss pork products in a can when talking about spam.

We are discussing spam and low-quality on-page or off-page search engine optimisation.

Most of Google’s updates now focus on removing spam from its index. It does this by penalising websites that build spam links and have, say duplicated content marketing. Two massive Google updates were the Google Panda update, which penalised websites with low-quality content marketing, and the Google Penguin update, which penalised websites with spam links.

We are now going to look at some of the significant Google core updates so that you can get a sense of the important Google algorithm updates that have already been rolled out.

You can also understand Google’s extensive work to improve its algorithm and weed out spam.

 

Google Panda Update (2011)

As expected, most of the Google algorithm updates have concentrated on removing low-quality content marketing from Google’s index.
The Google Panda update targeted and eliminated low-quality content marketing, so, for example, businesses that content thin content marketing can also duplicate text.

If businesses were using cloaking, for example, they would have experienced a drop in their rankings.
Since then, Google has issued a series of updates and guidance, such as the Google E-EAT guidance and a Google Helpful Content update.

This shows that Google only wants original, high-quality, well-written content marketing in its index.
Businesses that try to cut corners would see their organic ranking drop.

 

In a nutshell, this is what Google wants your business content marketing to be:

– Have a high Google E-EAT score
– This means showing that you are an expert and you have extensive experience with what you are writing about. You are an authority on what you are discussing, and the business is a trusted source of information.
– Only use white hat methods
–  Engagement SEO metrics, such as dwell time, must be high.

 

Google Penguin Update (2012)

If you were a client who once said, “We want 100 links built this month!” Well, often, that’s just unrealistic, and many businesses that adopted this link-building strategy ended up incurring a Google penalty.

Why is that so?

Well, simply because it’s far better to have much less quality links than to aim to build many low-quality links.

Low-quality link building, such as having hundreds or thousands of spam links, will eventually result in a Google penalty. This can mean that because of the business’s backlink profile, the company incurs a penalty, such as a Google Penguin penalty.

For example, a business may rank on page one of Google. However, after a link penalty, such as the Google Penguin penalty, the industry is de-indexed, and therefore, the company won’t appear on Google at all.

 

Google’s Mobile Update (2015)

Google gave websites with a mobile or responsive version of their website an uplift in the rankings.

Around this time, Google rolled out mobile-first indexing. This means that Googlebot would crawl and index the mobile website, including the text and internal links, for example, before it indexed the desktop version.

Therefore, having well-designed desktop and mobile website versions is crucial to optimising your business’s organic search engine. You should also aim to get both versions of the website as well designed as possible to improve the UX. This means working on lowering the bounce rate as much as possible.

 

Google’s Page Experience Update (2021)

Many SEO agencies now believe that Google has eliminated spam links and low-quality content marketing because it has targeted spam. So, we are entering a period of user experience. Which businesses offer the best shopping experience, for example?
So, how is this measured?

It is measured on metrics such as the page’s visual stability, which means how fast all the various elements load. Is the website responsive and mobile-friendly? There are other metrics, such as whether the website has HTTPS.

 

Google Helpful Content Update (2022)

When you read an article that Google has placed on the first page of the SERPs, it’s clear that much effort has been put into it.

What we mean by that is, usually, the pages on the first-page offer detailed and very comprehensive answers to a question.

There are usually a lot of facts, statistics, and helpful advice.

This is the type of content marketing that Google likes: high-quality content with a high Google E-EAT score.

After the Google Helpful Content update, businesses with many duplicated or content-thin pages often saw their businesses move down the organic ranks in the search engine results pages.

So, for example, if you had employed a marketing company that churned out 500-word articles that just waffled, then the business would have had many content and thin pages.

For those who don’t know, content-thin pages are blog posts or, let’s say, main pages, where the content is what copywriters or agencies call shallow or content-thin. A page that doesn’t offer much helpful information might have a low word count. Alternatively, it could be a page that doesn’t provide helpful advice; it’s just a marketing waffle.

For example, have you ever read a blog post from start to finish and thought, at the end, “Well, that was a complete waste of time; there’s no helpful advice there.”

Well, this is a good example of content-thin content marketing, and it’s this content, which is content-thin, that is getting moved down Google’s organic SERPs.

If you have a lot of content thin, content marketing, this can act like an anchor or dead weight on your company website. Lowering the overall domain authority of the whole website.
So, you want high-quality pages across your website with a very high Google E-EAT score.

 

Why quality always pays

Various companies and marketing agencies panic when Google announces it is about to roll out a core update.
But why?

From our experience as one of the most experienced SEO agencies in Wales, we think that as long as the work is quality, why would Google move the pages or websites down Google’s SERPs?

 

How many Google updates do you think Google rolls out per year?

Well, nobody knows the real and honest answer.

Google sometimes indicates that it is about to roll out a significant update. For example, before the Google mobile update was rolled out, businesses were given a period to design a mobile version of their website.

However, the more minor updates—well, most agencies believe we have hundreds of them yearly. And because we don’t know what Google’s engineers are targeting, for example, content, thin pages, and poor on-page SEO techniques such as cloaking or link spam, sometimes a business can’t prepare.

However, businesses can prepare by following Google’s guidelines, such as its web admin or Google E-EAT guidelines.

You might be thinking, why wouldn’t all businesses follow, say, Google’s E-EAT guidance?

Well, producing long-form content marketing like this, which is researched and written by an expert, takes a lot of time.

Many businesses lack the time or resources to publish long-form, well-written pages with a high Google E-EAT score.

They fall into the trap of cutting corners, taking what some say is the lazy approach, such as building a ton of spam links, using cloaking methods, or using spun content marketing. You may look up many of these approaches on Google to see what they mean and why someone would do that.

Well, because these approaches to SEO don’t work anymore.

They have been phased out.

Through consecutive Google updates, Google has phased them out, extinct, if you like, dead methods. An algorithm penalty for building may have hit the businesses that have used them, such as spam links, and those businesses may also cease to exist, so they go bankrupt.

Therefore, here’s the best advice from our best SEO expert at Walsh & Partners: Google doesn’t like spam or low-quality optimisation methods. If you try to spam the algorithm and use low-quality optimisation methods, then one day, the website will be hit by an algorithmic penalty. These usually happen when, yes, that’s right, Google rolls out a Google core update.

So, follow the rules and produce quality work.

 

Why could we see fewer Google updates in the future?

Zero-click searches are on the rise, where Google answer a shopper query directly in the SERPs.
So, perhaps fewer Google updates will be needed.

And A. I am expanding into our everyday lives, and so is machine learning.

Conventional ranking factors may now be used as part of Google’s algorithm as they are less and less critical.

 

Why do we say that?

Through machine learning, Google will know how interested shoppers are in a business’s
How long are they spending on that page?
How long are you on that website?
Is it clear that a business is grabbing a shoppers’ interest more? Despite having weaker ranking signals, such as few backlinks, it’s still managing to have a dwell time just miles ahead of the competition.

 

Could machine learning become more and more important?

Well, we think so. As AI and machine learning significantly advance in improving the quality of the search engine results pages, we may see fewer Google core updates roll out.

Perhaps Google has already cracked it.

Due to the hard work that’s gone into engineering, say, the Google Panda update and the Google Penguin update, perhaps the back has been broken on spam. Possibly, Google has spam under control.

So, now, we may see fewer and fewer Google core updates because of this also.
Could we enter an era when A. I make the decisions more.

Yes, that is the short answer; at least Ryan Walsh, who runs this agency, thinks so.

AI is going to replace Googlebot and be instantly able to look at a website and know how good it is. Then, machine learning will be used to see how real shoppers like that business. It’s perfectly possible. We see more and more brand-new websites hitting the first page in Google’s

SERPs, as machine learning predicts that they will better answer a query immediately.

Then, based on machine learning monitoring, such as dwell time monitoring, the business may stay there.

Imagine that a well-designed website hits page one of Google’s serps immediately.

Imagine that: there is no need for us SEO consultants anymore!

Why does your agency never cut corners? Indeed, it’s better to see results in a shorter time frame.

No.

Just never cut corners.

Businesses that try to cut corners and achieve results quickly often face a Google penalty.

We mentioned earlier that we can see a point where a brand-new website is immediately placed on page one of Google.

But again, for that to happen, the website must still be designed and built well, following white-hat methods.
Businesses that flout the rules or try to cut corners will be penalised by Google. Therefore, it’s possible for a brand-new company that’s just registered its domain name to get hit by a Google penalty in month one if the SEO is implemented poorly.

Just don’t cut corners. It’s not worth it.

 

Was Google E-EAT a Google core update?

No

What it was general guidance.

It is a guideline for businesses to write content marketing and build off-page SEO.

Google is clearly saying we want quality.

We want pages to be helpful, well-written and high quality.

Anything less, and the work won’t make the index, or it could get de-indexed.

Therefore, it’s Google’s way of setting out what SEO work it rewards and which work it doesn’t want, like content thin content marketing, it doesn’t like.

 

What should we do if we think a Google core update has hit us?

The first thing to do is not rush into making changes to your website immediately after a Google update rolls out.

You have to let the storm blow over. In search engine optimisation, we call this storm “ranking flux.” It’s basically when a business moves sharply up or down Google’s SERPs yet then moves back to a different position when the Google update is over.

So you have to let the storm blow over, so to speak.

Then, say a week after the Google update, evaluate where the website has moved.

We strongly recommend checking Search Engine Land to see when an update has been rolled out.

Here at this SEO agency, we visit Search Engine Land daily. It’s one of the best places to get the most updated knowledge on Google algorithm updates.

 

Will a website recover if it’s been hit by a Google update?

This does depend.

You do have to talk to an SEO consultant for advice.

It’s a bit like saying to a car repair shop when a car has incurred a serious crash, you ask the garage- “Can it be repaired?”.
Over the phone, they won’t be able to say anything.

This is the same when a business has incurred a Google manual action or an algorithm penalty.

Because sometimes, after some changes, you can tell Google that you have fixed those errors, and you may recover.

However, if they have substantial spam links, some businesses can sometimes be hit with a link penalty that can hold the SEO back for a very long time.

 

What should we do if a Google algorithmic penalty has hit us?

We recommend talking to an expert. You need to know what has caused the sudden dip in organic traffic.

This is so you know what to repair and what needs work.

For example, if it’s a link penalty caused by the Google Penguin penalty, you will need a link expert. This is so the backlink profile can be exported to a Microsoft Excel document, and the backlink expert can determine which links are toxic.

Then, you can upload a disavow file to Google. This file asks Google to disavow the backlinks causing the issue.

However, if you have seen a lowering in your organic rankings, let’s say after the Google Helpful Content Update, this can involve much work.

You may have been posting blog posts/ articles since 2010, yet much of the content marketing work is deemed “content thin.”

Your organic keyword positions could have been lowered overall after the Google Helpful Content Update.

This could also mean that the website as a whole now has a low Google E-EAT score and a low DA score. This could mean working with your copywriters and your chosen SEO agency and going back and seeing which pages need improvement.

For example, if there is duplicate content marketing, this will need to be fixed.

Are there many pages with content-thin pages? If so, these must be improved to improve the Google E-EAT score.

For example, you could write additional text and improve the page by offering better advice.

Remember, Google’s algorithm now works because they want a business to offer helpful advice. That’s advice that will help the shopper, that offers detailed and helpful advice.

This could cover topics such as which home appliances are the most energy efficient or advice on choosing an SEO agency.

 

In a nutshell, for the content marketing to be deemed as good quality, it needs to be the following:

– Have a high Google E-EAT score
– Have good links leading to it
– Have a low bounce rate
– Have a high dwell time
– It needs to be written by an expert on that subject
– It needs to have a high word count
– Can’t be duplicated

 

What should we do if a Google manual action penalty has hit us?

Then, similar to an algorithmic penalty, you should talk to an SEO company to work out a plan for recovering from such a Google update.

 

How we can help

Ryan Walsh manages this marketing business.

Ryan is one of the country’s most highly experienced search engine optimisation consultants.
We can help your business in the following ways:

 

Organic SEO

We can evaluate your business. We do this by using a mixture of SEO tools and manually reviewing the website. We will look at your content marketing and on-page SEO and devise a plan of action to improve your business’s marketing.

 

Local SEO

We work with several businesses, but we specialise in working with lawyers. We can help your business gain more local customers.
We specialise in local search engine optimisation.

 

Technical SEO

We can help improve your business’s technical SEO by checking whether pages can be crawled and indexed. We can fix this if Googlebot cannot crawl and index the page.

 

On-Page

We improve your company’s on-page SEO by adding quality blog posts and improving the main pages. We can add internal links, write meta titles and descriptions, add H1-H6 tags, and improve content-thin pages.

 

Off-Page

We can build quality links to improve your local or national SEO.

Come to the SEO experts. We offer free quotes. Ryan Walsh, one of the most highly experienced SEO consultants in the country, owns and manages the business.