Google’s Latest Algorithm Update Favours Diversity
Anyone who knows what it’s like to run an online business will have the same love-hate relationship with Google.
Google holds the power to transform the performance and prosperity of any online business at any time. Nevertheless, it can also lay your business to waste, without so much as an apology.
Hence, the online business world is constantly bowing to the demands of Google and its ever-evolving algorithms.
On the plus side, Google has at least become a little more vocal and transparent over recent years. Algorithm changes are becoming more frequent and complex all the time, but they’re at least giving us an idea what it is they expect. The latest minor-to-moderate update being no exception to the rule.
Google’s Diversity Update
Officially rolled out on June 3rd, Google has now set its latest algorithm updates in motion. Known in official circles as the Diversity Update, it’s far from the most game-changing algorithmic shift introduced to date.
Nevertheless, a pretty hefty number of sites quickly saw significant changes to their SERP performance and organic traffic. One of which being The Daily Mail, which reported a whopping 40% drop in organic traffic immediately after the update landed.
Ouch…
But what does all this mean for the rest of us? Assuming you’re running a slightly more modest enterprise than a major national newspaper, what do you need to do to cope confidently with the Diversity Update?
Common sense would suggest that the first thing you need to do is learn what the Diversity Update is all about.
Diversifying Search Results
Google’s motivation for this particular algorithmic update lies in bringing more diversity and variety to the search results. The idea being that if the Diversity Update does its job properly, you’ll unlikely find the same website ranking more than twice on the same page for any given query.
Chances are, you’ve carried out more than a few searches on occasion that have presented the same website on the first page at least half a dozen times. Sometimes due to the genuine appropriateness of the website, others as a result of spam SEO.
In any case, Google wants to make this a thing of the past. They’ve decided they’d prefer to give the user more freedom of choice. It’s also worth pointing out at this point that subdomains and root domains will be treated as the same site, which could deepen the impact of the algorithm update for a lot of online businesses.
What to do…
Unfortunately, this is a rare example of an algorithmic update where there’s absolutely nothing you can do to augment its impact. If Google doesn’t want you to appear multiple times on the same page for the same query, it’s not going to happen.
Instead, you’ll need to focus more intensively than ever before on ensuring you appear more prominently than your competitors. If you can’t dominate the SERP rankings with multiple listings, you may as well ensure you appear as close to the top as possible.