Quick Briefing
The month of July started with Google's announcement to roll out core updates. Next, the question came up if people can see improvement as they continuously review content and sites. Then, of course, there are expected changes with the new periodic refresh of the site. This is important because there won't be much improvement without properly refreshing the site.
On Thursday, July 1, Google declared that the core update would be out in a week or two, and as expected, the core update was out on July 12. Two normal spam notices preceded the July update. Google has confirmed that the July 2021 core update is now “effectively complete.” According to the Liaison Twitter page, Google wrote, “the July 2021 core update rollout is now effectively complete.” Worthy of note also is that the July core update had a lesser impact, and according to analysis, the July core update seems to be way smaller. This was global and was not necessarily specific to any language, category, or region website like all other core updates.
The previous core updates of June were slow to roll out but a big one compared to July. Likewise, the December 2020 core update was massive, much bigger than the May 2020 core update. The May update was also big and took a couple of weeks to roll out fully. But, of course, the September 2019 core update felt weaker to many SEOs and webmasters, as many analysts said it didn’t have as big of an impact as previous core updates.
Major Changes To Expect
In July, we had significant updates of up to ten from Google, though Google did not confirm three, it shows that there would be significant changes to expect following this update. We had the June core update come up with Google MUM rolling out in the most recent order. Whenever Google updates its search ranking algorithms, it means that your site can do better or worse in the search results. Knowing exactly when Google makes these updates would give us something to point to and understand if the changes on the website are significant or simple Google just changing its ranking algorithm.
But if your site saw any changes between July 1 and July 12, it was likely related to the July core update. Though Google, on several occasions, advised on what to expect and how well we should handle the negative impact of the core on sites in the past. There are no specific actions to take to recover. Also, negative rankings do not mean there is something wrong with your pages. However, Google has offered some things to consider if a core update hits your site. Google confirmed you could experience some recovery period between core updates, but the most significant change you would see would be after the next core update. Google rarely says what is involved in the core algorithm update. But Google has said that a core algorithm update introduces changes across a wide range of the indexing and ranking processes.
On July 26, Google Link Spam Algorithm Update announced an algorithm update aimed at nullifying links and identifying spam which was beginning to roll out. They further warned that any sites taking part in link spam tactics could see ranking changes. With sponsored guests and affiliate content very likely to be impacted, Google assured the update should be fully rolled out within two weeks and will impact multiple languages, indicating something new again for site users to expect.
What Effects Are Expected From The Update On Sites
According to site users and webmasters, the recent updates have caused massive traffic on its usage. Over the last few months, site users' attention on the update to be aware of what's new and changes is enormous. And with each update comes new changes. However, there have not been many changes on sites like many other updates for the July core update, especially the recently completed update on the 12th.
Lily Ray noticed that Pinterest ccTLDs lost on the July core update. She said, “Here are the different Pinterest ccTLDs, which saw huge visibility increases in the U.S. throughout 2020. Unfortunately, those sites are taking a nosedive right now. We have already noticed for some comm clients that product/category pages are replacing spots previously held by Pinterest.”
Then, the webmaster's discussion and SEOs in the WebmasterWorld forum declared a wide range of things that may have changed following the recent update. Although this can be unreliable, sometimes what people are talking about lines up with what is going on. So one of the things they concluded about is an increase in People Also Ask (P A.A.), a query refinement feature designed to get users to the answers they want to see. Steven, a user, shared:
"I'm not noticing much—very little fluctuations, even for high search volume keywords. I have a client ranking for 300k monthly search volume. It’s fluctuating between 1st and 2nd. Even for 10k+ keywords for other clients."
Another observation of interest is similarities in the ranking losses in images and the regular organic search engine results pages (SERPs). Also, there is a record of an increase in spam from Google search since its recent spam in July 2021. Google has since responded to a reduced quality on search results, actively trying not to show any low-quality results on their search.
This is not the first time users have noticed some spike or traffic while reviewing an update by Google that requires a refresh. A suggestion would be that the updates include an expansion in their reviews to help spot clues and affected sites.