All we hear is Radio Google: Understanding algorithm updates

From 16 to 19 October, the iGB Affiliate Conference in Lisbon’s FIL was the meeting point for professionals from all over the world. The event gathered more than 1,500 affiliates, operators and providers for three days filled with networking, conferences and social activities.

The participants got the opportunity to get to know the iGaming sector’s main players and the most recent services and technologies on a B2B basis. Some of the most relevant companies in the industry took part in the activities, hosting conferences and debates in which they shared their experience and knowledge with the guests. In this article, we focus on UniK SEO’s presentation, one that particularly covered the theme of Google Algorithm Updates.

UniK SEO at iGB Affiliate Lisbon 2019
UniK SEO is a Portuguese SEO Agency working with both mainstream and challenging niche businesses. They specialize in niches such as igaming, cryptocurrency, adult, marijuana and dental, among several others. UniK is a Google Partner and provides full digital marketing services to its clients.

The agency took part in this year’s iGB Affiliate Lisbon conference and offered the participants a session of knowledge sharing. UniK SEO’s Business Director, Grégoire Lacan, hosted a conference focused on understanding Google Algorithm Updates.

Grégoire has expertise in Digital Marketing and Affiliation and got started in SEO as a personal hobby, which lead him to create the company.

Below, we point out some of the key ideas of this presentation. Read on to learn more about Google’s functioning and how SEO is key for companies with an online presence.

Understanding Google Algorithm Updates
You’ve probably wondered about how the Google algorithm works. Maybe you even got to the point of conducting research about the matter and realized that updates are Google’s way of controlling the SERP rankings. But what exactly does this mean?

What are Google Algorithm Updates?
Before understanding how the updates work, it is important to get a hold of what Google algorithms are. There are tons of algorithms, Grégoire stated, that merge together to measure the level of quality and relevance of webpages in order to rank them.

Back in 1998, when Google was created, there were very few yearly updates. Nowadays, however, Google’s ubiquity makes it so that there are thousands of yearly updates – small daily updates that often are unannounced and go unnoticed, and fewer more impactful changes that are also less frequent.

Companies often experience fluctuations in their organic traffic, and many of them may find their cause in Google’s algorithm updates. This happens because many times, webmasters are not expecting updates and changing the ranking rules directly impacts websites’ performance. This is why it is of uttermost importance to be up to date and ready to adapt strategies whenever necessary.

How can you prepare for updates?
However challenging, Google algorithm updates are not a conundrum. In fact, there are several ways to make the best use of them. Besides nurturing your website’s success and results, being on top of the updates may reveal itself as a way to gain an advantage over your less-prepared competition.

Grégoire left the audience with some expert tips on how to be prepared for upcoming updates, with the following presented as the main topics to pay attention to:

– Always be alert, no matter how good your SEO is currently

– Create great content for your website: Google has UX in very high account, and investing in your content’s quality is mandatory if you want to rank high in the SERPs

– Build natural backlinks: they are very important to your website’s organic traffic.

– Perform regular audits on your website: In this way, you can make sure important changes in Google’s rules don’t pass you by.

– Stay informed: Read SEO blogs and newsletters, follow online communities and social media groups and don’t forget to set your Google Alerts for algorithm updates and SEO related news.

Download the PDF from Gregóire’s presentation
As promised, here you can download the complete PDF used for Grégoire’s presentation on All We Hear is Radio Google: Understanding Google Algorithm Updates.

The full presentation covered several other useful topics, such as the most impactful updates in Google’s history, the most recent ones we’ve testified, updates that specifically affected iGaming websites and, most importantly, more insight on how to be prepared for Google’s algorithm updates.

In case you have any doubts, do head over to UniK SEO’s website! Besides having an SEO Blog directed to Marketers and Marketing enthusiasts, the Portuguese agency would be happy to answer all your questions.