The Google June 2021 Core Update: How It Will Affect SEO

Master funnel expert and creator of ClickFunnels, Russell Brunson, calls Google updates ‘The Google Slap,’ which, in his mind, is just as diabolical, catastrophic, and sudden as the Thanos Snap.
For those of you familiar with the Avengers franchise, this comparison will sound not only familiar but also make a lot of sense.
You may find yourself wondering — ‘Wait. Is Google trying to destroy half the world and set the other half on fire with these dreaded updates?’
When the effects of each of these updates cause millions of businesses to lose their hard-earned SERP (search engine results page) positions, the question is a fair one. From businesses working with SEO in Sydney to individuals providing SEO services to content creators and bloggers, no one is immune.
With another update poised to roll out in July 2021, let’s look at how this June 2021 Google update will affect SEO for Sydney businesses and consumers who rely on Google searches to research, browse, learn, and so much more.

What Does the June 2021 Google Update Include?

If you’re an SEO services geek like the team here at Whitehat Agency, then you’ll already know that this core update is not a new thing.
In fact, on 10 November 2020, Google announced that May 2021 would be approximately when they’d roll out an update to the Google page experience.
What does this mean? Well, Google’s main intention is to improve how convenient it is for visitors to browse and how consistent their experience is, regardless of the device.
It may not make a significant difference (yet) to rankings, but Google will eventually factor in user experience and core web vitals like loading time (largest contentful paint), interactivity (first input delay), and visual stability (cumulative layout shift).
Here are a few other facts we know so far about the June 2021 Google core updates, which could affect SEO in Sydney:

• True changes and fluctuations in site rankings only began to be seen around 6 and 7 June.
• With another core update coming in July, reverses could still occur. So, just because you’ve dropped rankings doesn’t mean it will stay that way.
• These first couple of weeks introduced a lot of volatility. Main clunky sites that receive a high amount of traffic got demoted. A notable one was astrology.com. TripAdvisor and Quora also got hit, which is interesting given the authority of these types of domains.
• According to Semrush’s tracking, websites within five specific categories saw the greatest initial volatility — health, autos & vehicles, pets & animals, science, and travel.
• This generality reminds all site owners of Google’s approach to core updates: ‘Nothing in a core update is site-specific.’

Sistrix summed up Google’s changes to SEO in this way: ‘Google is using new approaches to rank domains and not just feeding new data to old algorithms.’

How Do Google’s 2021 Updates Impact SEO Services?

Even though Google is promising to give all webmasters at least six months before the new page experience updates to core web vitals kick in, they’re so far being quite vague about how much each of the core vital factors actually weighs in rankings.
Looking at historical changes, Panda’s initial release impacted 11.8% of all queries and Google’s BERT impacted 10% of queries. With Panda, the aim was to really shut down those content farm-type sites. Meanwhile, BERT was Google’s foray into harnessing AI for featured snippets and search queries.
What we can expect, however, is that great content continues to take precedence over spammy, low-quality content. How quickly your page loads and how and when content is displayed also matter when it comes to the core web vitals update.
It all comes down to interaction, relevancy, and value. If your site has a specific target audience or demographic and your content is aimed to address their queries and pain points, then improving factors like site speed will help enhance your rankings.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that we’re all still waiting with bated breath to understand how the non-site-specific, core updates in June and July affect businesses using SEO in Sydney.
The good news is that rankings fluctuate all the time and a solid, responsive SEO strategy is the only bankable solution to the very nature of the rankings game. We’ve already seen that even factors like domain authority don’t matter if Google thinks you’re publishing spammy content or if your site is a pain to load.
Get in touch with the Whitehat Agency team to build your own comprehensive digital strategy today.