May 20
15
Originally written for Brand Labs Insights. Here’s a short snippet.
In some ways, a core update might just be routine improvement and maintenance. Google is constantly working to produce more accurate search results that better fit the needs, wants and realities of users. For example, in the autumn of 2016, Google noticed that over 50% of all search queries were coming from mobile devices. In March 2017, Google announced a Mobile First strategy in which it would change the way it scores web documents to include how sites, and documents in it, perform on mobile devices. This necessitated a restructuring of server farms around the globe. This restructuring, along with a number of factors relating to the user experience of mobile device users, became the likely suspect responsible for subsequent core updates that lasted until the spring of 2019.
It is difficult to say whether any one of those individual updates had wide or sweeping effects on search results. Cumulatively, however, these mobile-speed-related core updates have profoundly affected which websites rank higher than others and how mobile search users receive and graphically view information on their devices.
Read more at Brand Labs Insights – How to Cope with a Google Core Update