Adapt to Google’s Search Algorithm Updates with a Modernized Digital Marketing Strategy – Part 1

The overall goal of these updates is to improve Google’s ability to provide searchers with content they can trust, which involves a better understanding of what a searcher is looking for and enhanced recognition of the quality of content.

Google released core updates last year. In this two-part blog post, I’d like to share some insight on significant changes implemented during these two updates and how you can adapt your digital marketing strategy to complement them. In this first part, we’ll focus on the update’s emphasis on content relevancy and the principle of E-A-T.

Content Relevancy

The primary change of the May 2020 update had to do with content relevancy and Google’s ability to recognize it. Google is now better able to determine how relevant and useful any given piece of content is.

If your content was more relevant in May 2020 than it was in January 2020, you’re in luck, and your site probably improved in search engine results. However, if you have outdated content, your website most likely dropped in Google rankings post-update. We recommend clients focus more attention on blogging as a natural way to continually post timely content to their sites, thus improving Google’s perception of their content relevancy. You may find a few handy tips on doing so in this article about refining your blog.

This particular upgrade emphasizes the importance of revising old content, as well as publishing new, to keep your information accurate and your digital marketing strategy current. When your marketing includes relevant content, Google will recognize it as useful for searchers and rank it higher in search engine results.

E-A-T

Google uses the abbreviation E-A-T to discuss expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. These qualities are crucial in Google’s ranking algorithms, and both the January and May updates focused on E-A-T.

E-A-T connects to many aspects of your business, including your content and brand. It’s especially critical to work on your E-A-T if your industry is YMYL or Your Money or Your Life. YMYL websites are medical, legal or financial sites, any site that helps its users make important decisions and any site that sells products or processes credit card payments, which is pertinent for all eCom focused sites.

YMYL sites understandably need to be trustworthy. After all, you wouldn’t want medical advice from someone not licensed or knowledgeable enough to give it. If you do run a reputable site, you want to make sure Google recognizes it as such. A digital marketing agency like ours can help you refine your brand in order to boost your E-A-T. This post about how we rebranded the Oxygen channel is a great example of how we’ve improved a client’s E-A-T in the past.

Here at Mod Op, we can help optimize your content and your E-A-T as two means of modernizing your SEO strategy, and those are just the beginning. Next month, in the second half of this analysis, I’ll cover three more areas that Google’s recent updates address. In the meantime, you can learn more about Mod Op’s SEO and other technology services here.