Back in the spring the Google search engine had a major update change affecting many sites including job boards. I had a client that lost MORE THAN HALF of its search traffic. You can see the drop below…
The drop off from March to April was dramatic. That downward trend continued through the summer until August when Google rolled out a new core update.
When the drop happened this spring, there was little reason why the site lost traffic. We had been adding more content, getting backlinks and generally been doing the same SEO work for many months prior. So it was puzzling. Some speculation was that they were penalizing the site for duplicate job content.
We changed nothing over the summer and suddenly the lost traffic returned.
Here’s what Google says about the August rollout:
“This latest update takes into account the feedback we’ve heard from some creators and others over the past few months. As always, we aim to connect people with a range of high quality sites, including small or independent sites that are creating useful, original content, when relevant to users’ searches. This is an area we’ll continue to address in future updates. This update also aims to better capture improvements that sites may have made, so we can continue to show the best of the web.”
Did you see that part about “small and independent sites”? That’s a nod to my clients job board and it is welcome news after the frustration from the spring update. It appears Google righted the wrong from the spring update.
The lesson here: don’t underestimate the whim of Google’s algorithm. One day you’re up the next day you’re down. Be prepared. Keep the content machine chugging along. Be consistent and persistent over time with your content efforts.
Sometimes Google giveth and taketh.
