Google Algorithm Updates/Core Updates
episode
Voices of Search // A Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Content Marketing Podcast
21 min
2 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 29 days ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What exactly are Google core updates and how are they different from other algorithm changes?
The Voices of Search Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast? I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth, and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice? Then visit IHear Everything.com. Welcome to the Voices of Search Podcast, a member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Ready to expedite your company's organic growth efforts? Sit back, relax, and get ready for your daily dose of search engine optimization wisdom. Here's today's host of the Voices of Search Podcast, Tyson Stockton.
Hey, what's going on? My name's Tyson from previsible.io, and today I'm joined with Barry Schwartz, who's been covering SEO for 20 years. He is the president of Rusty Brick, which is a web development company. He also is an editor at Search Engine Land, and he's also founder of Search Engine Roundtable. Yesterday Barry and I talked about the latest and greatest in search and today we're continuing the conversation by discussing Google algorithm updates and core updates. With that, here's my conversation with Barry Schwartz. Barry, welcome back. Thanks for having me. Great to be back. Today we're diving into kind of algorithm updates and core updates. You are definitely a source, I think, for a lot of the SEOs out there to kind of keep their pulse on what's going on here.
Do know we can plug it kind of in the show notes, but you had a recent conversation with Danny kind of covering a lot of these areas. I feel like maybe first to set the stage and kind of, I guess, level set with everyone for maybe some of like the the newer or the younger SEOs, like how would you characterize like what makes a core update versus one of the thousands of updates that could happen throughout the year?
That's a great question. So Google has a number of updates that they threw out the year. Well, the most prominent ones are the core updates, but they've had review updates, they've had spam updates, they've had you know helpful content updates, they've had other updates as well. So a core update would be a how Google classifies as a significant change to the core ranking system, meaning how those links show up in the search results. It's not just like the template links, it could be Google Discover. how much Google trusts your website and the content that you show on your website and how those adjust those rankings across all their surfaces. Whereas like a spam update might go after certain types of tactics that you might be doing to manipulate Google search.
So link spam, certain types of content spam, and other types of manipulation techniques that maybe certain SEOs or marketing companies might deploy to try to trick Google to think that your website is ranking. Well. So core kind of like, if you think about it and Google wants you to think about it this way, core is kind of like promoting and rewarding the best type of content across the web, whereas like the spam algorithms and so forth, those spam updates kind of demote or degrade the some types of rankings. And then there's certain specialty algorithms that are not really fully live anymore, that were more about maybe looked at like review content or looked at certain types of elements like of content.
content that you might have out there and try to like do special things for those types of elements. And then of course you have like verticals, video, shopping, you know, images and audio and stuff like that, like this podcast. And they have different elements and different algorithms for each one slightly. And core outdates actually impact all those things. But there's definitely specialty algorithms as well in there.
And I guess in more recent algorithm update news. So I think we have kind of a few that are, I mean, either like very recent or kind of I think still top of mind for a lot of people. Going back and I kind of want to just hit on three. So the September helpful update, obviously that was a significant one, kind of sent some tremors or some ripples through the industry.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What exactly are Google core updates and how are they different from other algorithm changes?
0:00–5:36
2
How does Google define a “core update” compared to spam, review, or helpful‑content updates?
5:36–7:55
3
What was the September 2023 Helpful Content update and how did it become part of core updates?
7:55–10:15
4
Why has there been unusually long volatility after the March 2024 core update?
10:15–13:25
5
Is Google trying to reward smaller, niche publishers with recent core updates?
13:25–16:16
6
What strategies can sites use to diversify traffic and protect against future algorithm swings?
16:16–18:54
7
What practical advice does Barry give SEO professionals for navigating upcoming updates?
18:54–20:06
8
How can listeners stay informed and keep their SEO efforts resilient after this episode?
20:06–21:17