22.08.2018 · 2 min read

The big Google update

In early August the SEO world held its breath. Google announced (yet again) a major update to the search algorithm. For all website operators and their webmasters, that always means that a number of things will change. Because Google dominates the market, and every day millions of people spend their working time doing nothing but tuning their websites/shops perfectly to Google’s search algorithm: so that they appear high up in search, so that their shop sells best, or so that Google shows the best reviews. And that is why a Google update always means that perhaps all the effort so far can be wiped out by just one update, or at least that a lot of work lies ahead.

This August’s update abruptly left a great many websites – especially from the health sector – looking enormously better, and some websites lost their top ranking. Experts from the SEO industry quickly noticed: Google seems to be placing ever more value on E-A-T.

E-A-T stands for:

  • Expertise
  • Authority
  • Trust

So when assessing and classifying websites, Google continues to pay increased attention to relevance and trustworthiness. Google also said this in the guidelines updated on 20 July 2018, according to which quality raters are to assess websites.

Image source: Shutterstock

Takeaway

What now?

RELEVANCE, RELEVANCE, RELEVANCE!
Through the current Google update, too, we see once again: CONTENT IS KING. In future it will become ever more important WHAT is on the website, how user-friendly the content is and how convincing a website is in substance. Technical influences on the search results move into the background – product recommendations, expertise, user opinions and more into the foreground.