Google’s Broad Core Algorithm Update for Car Dealers
SEO affected by Google’s Broad Core Algorithm Update
Google’s broad core algorithm update has been released around August 1st and seems to have a significant impact on both local and regular organic search results. The main purpose behind this update is to give a demotion to pages that provide advice, but have questionable expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness (E-A-T).
While this most recent update didn’t have as big of an impact on the SEO and content marketing industry compared to other updates like Penguin and Panda, it nonetheless affected many websites spread out across various niches.
So far, Google hasn’t provided much in terms of information about the update. In a Tweet, they simply referred back to advice that they gave back in March, which encouraged website owners to keep their focus on “building great content.” Anyone who knows a thing or two will instantly recognize such advice as being extremely vague and nearly useless. There isn’t a single definition of what constitutes “great content” and a type of content that helps you rank well in one niche could actually be detrimental in another one.
A Tweet that Google made in March about a previous update is particularly interesting. It said that there’s “nothing wrong” with pages that don’t rank as high as they used to anymore and that their system has been adjusted to give benefits to pages that were “previously under-rewarded.”
How Does E-A-T Affect Your SEO?
Google’s broad core algorithm update seems to place a lot of emphasis on E-A-T, which stands for “expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness.” If you take a look at their Search Quality Guidelines document, you’ll see that it’s a big part of how the search engine determines which pages should be rewarded with a high ranking for certain keywords.
By increasing the importance of E-A-T in ranking factors, Google seems to be not only ensuring that the content users see is well-written and of high quality, but also unlikely to have a negative impact on their lives. the search giant is now lowering the ranking websites that are seen as non-authoritative sources, as they’re a lot more likely to provide questionable advice. This type of questionable advice can sometimes lead to people losing money on dubious products or even suffering negative health effects.
The effects of Google’s most recent algorithm update have been felt the most by websites that show medical information. Many search engine optimization experts have noticed that commercial sites which provide information about diets are now being outranked by pages belonging to more reputable medical organizations.
While websites that deal with health-related topics were the most affected by the search engine’s increased focus on E-A-T, they definitely weren’t the only ones. Any websites or blogs that provide advice or information about a certain topic to visitors may have dropped in rankings. Experts researching the latest update found that home improvement websites, providers of legal, financial, tax or investment advice, websites hosting news articles and even sites that talk about hobbies like photography or musical instruments have all been affected.
Does This Update Affect Local Dealerships?
Even though it seems that the websites affected were mainly global information sites or e-commerce sites that distribute products all over the world, such as websites selling dietary supplements, local businesses can be affected by this update too. For example, many car dealers contact Customer Scout for details on how this update affects their SEO efforts.
It isn’t yet known how exactly Google’s evaluators determine an author’s expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness, but it does appear that information articles created by people or organizations that are highly reputable in their niche didn’t suffer much of a drop in rankings.
Local businesses who publish informational or advice articles on their blog may stop and think whether they’re overreaching their expertise. It’s also a good idea to include a blurb about the author’s qualifications and to cite any sources used. For example, a car dealership that makes a blog post about the importance of scheduled maintenance should state that the author is a mechanic with several years of experience in the industry and link to the manufacturer’s website where appropriate.
If you run a car dealership and are looking for help with your search engine marketing efforts, don’t hesitate to contact Customer Scout today. They provide a wide range of online marketing services that have helped dealerships get a highly valuable spot on the first page of search results.