Google is always zipped about the changes it plans to implement in its algorithm. However, this change was large enough for many website owners and digital marketing firms offering SEO services to notice considerable changes in traffic and rankings.
Google Fred is an algorithm update that targets black-hat tactics tied to fierce monetization. Fred mainly targets websites that are not abiding by the guidelines. This update caused a huge shift in rankings and traffic for sites utilizing black-hat and heavy ad monetization tactics. Surveys suggest that affected sites saw a 90% drop in traffic.
The websites that are mainly affected by this update contain the following-
- Thin content.
- User experience barriers.
- An extremely huge presence of ads.
- Bad back-links.
- Deceptive ads – These are ads that look like a download or play button to trick users into clicking.
- Aggressive monetization and affiliate setups.
- Content on all kinds of topics created purely for ranking basis.
- Quality of content is much below the industry-specific sites.
Here are 5 things that you need to look upon if you are affected by the lost rankings and traffic –
- Look at the analytics. Did you see a drop in the traffic or the number of keywords that were ranking between March 5th March 20th. If no, then you are probably fine to read on.
- Check if you can categorize your content in 2 verticals – high quality and low quality.
- Match the lost keywords, based on previous rankings and traffic volume with low quality content pages.
- Improve the content by rewriting, adding content and making your low quality pages better.
- Use a backlink tool or checker to remove unquestionable backlinks. Ensure that the ‘good’ backlinks appear natural and in reasonable ratios.
Google Fred SEO services or tactics
Looking for Fred update SEO services? You are recommended to remember the Google Quality Rating Guidelines and ensure that all the content abides by the best practice. The factors considered are as follows –
- What the page is about.
- Clear indication of who the website belongs to.
- Well maintained and updated page.
- Excellent website reputation.
Update Changes and Concerns
The update has been around for long enough to actually understand it. The first and foremost thing is content. If your site is ranked on the basis on long keywords and the content matching those keywords was written before 2014, there are high chances that you might have been affected. If Google Fred sees your content as outdated and critical, you might witness some rankings drop.
The second factor that comes into the picture is low-quality backlinks. If you have ever paid for artificial backlinks, Google Fred may penalize you. Low quality content and low backlinks go hand in hand making it difficult to understand what drives changes in the rankings.
How to avoid the Google Fred Penalty?
The algorithm has been released to encourage high quality content. If your website has a lot of old content you would want to go back through and optimize these pages to meet their quality standards. The best way to avoid or recover from a penalty is to focus on creating high-quality and authoritative content on your website. For the rest of 2017, focus on creating high quality content rather than generating large amounts of cheap and quickly written content.
