Has traffic to your website dropped off suddenly this year?
Google (other search engines are available!) constantly tweaks it’s algorithm but occasionally, they issue what we call a major algorithm update. This year has been exceptional, with six major updates hitting since February!
These major updates can look at a variety of changes, but without fail, the purpose of a major update is to weed out what Google calls “low quality” or “spam” sites. But what do Google mean by this?
When Google is trying to decide whether to rank your content, it looks at a number of aspects. You need to bear in mind, Google only wants to rank “good” content that is relevant and of value to the searcher – it is because they are known to only provide content in their results that they became the leading search engine in the world, with over 70% of all internet searches conducted on Google.
So what is Google after?
Google actually tells us what they expect to see in the content and gives us guidelines, known as Google E-E-A-T standards, that can be found here: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content.
If you want your content to have a chance to rank, you basically have to satisfy the Google requirements and demonstrate Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness.
Whenever Google runs an algorithm update, there are always some websites that get caught out. Maybe your content was deemed to be too short, maybe it was deemed that it did not supply enough information on the relevant subject, maybe it was not unique content (Google hates duplicate content), or the biggest shock of all to some people – maybe it was written using AI?
Yes, that’s right, Google much prefers to rank human-written content over AI – but that’s a post for another day, so keep an eye out for that one!
In short, if your traffic has dropped off suddenly this year, it could be that when Google rolled out one of their updates, they no longer considered your website content was up to their standards, and dropped it like the proverbial hot potato.
If your drop in traffic coincides with any of these dates, it could be time to address your content issues!
Confirmed 2026 Google Updates:
August 2026 Spam Update: Released on August 18, 2026, and completed on August 21, 2026, targeting global spam guideline violations.
June 2026 Spam Update: Rolled out between June 24 and June 26, 2026, focusing globally on automated and low-value content.
May 2026 Core Update: Launched on May 21 and finished on June 2, 2026; a broad core update causing substantial rank volatility.
March 2026 Spam Update: A brief, targeted spam rollout on March 24, 2026.
March 2026 Core Update: Rolled out from March 27 to April 8, 2026, recalibrating general content relevance.
February 2026 Discover Core Update: Google’s first-ever feed-specific update targeting E-E-A-T, local relevance, and visual quality in Google
Of course, if you want to make life easy on yourself, you could give the expert team at Simple Business Website a call, we’re always happy to have a chat and help you get back up those rankings!
