Google Announces November 2021 Core Update

Google rolled out a third core update on November 17, 2021, called the November 2021 Core Update. As the update rolls out over the next couple of weeks, Ross has noted some areas that businesses should pay attention to as well as new features included in the update to utilize.

What Does the Update Mean

Google frequently puts out updates that add new business features and commonly impacts SEO and search result ranking. Both of which will be very important for businesses to pay attention to. In these core updates, Google perfects their algorithms to better serve consumers with relevant content based on their search query. 

Why You Should Be Concerned

As a business, you should pay attention to Google core updates because they can impact how your website ranks in search engine results. Over the next couple of weeks, it will be pertinent to watch your analytics and rankings. You may see a fluctuation in your website visitors due to the core update.

What to Do If Impacted

If analytics show your website is impacted by Google’s November 2021 Core Update, it is time to get to work. Look at the pages that are no longer ranking well. How can you improve them based on the new algorithm? Are there texts edits that you can make? Or is your page ranking low because of the design?

Spend some time to understand how the new algorithm pulls and how you can fix your pages to rank higher. You may also want to take a look in your website backend to improve your meta data and the keywords included on your pages. 

In some cases, negative rankings may not signal anything is wrong with your page.¹ Google has reiterated that many websites that experience drops in traffic that are looking for a fix may not have anything to fix at all. If you are negatively impacted, Google has posted advice on the core updates which may help you discover what your next steps are.

New Features to Utilize

With the November 2021 Core Update comes four new features for the Google Ads’ Insights Page. This includes consumer interest insights, audience insights, change history insights and auction insights, and demand forecasts. Google announced on Thursday, November 18, 2021, that these features will be added globally in the coming weeks.

All of these new features can help businesses better predict emerging trends and plan their campaigns and inventory accordingly.2 Additionally, businesses will gain better knowledge of how consumers are searching for their products, what themes they are interested in and what text served in ads has the best chance of converting.

Here is a quick look at what each feature will do.

Consumer Interest Insights

This feature will anonymize top-performing query streams that drive performance in your campaigns. It will tell you how many people search for the theme, the growth of each theme and how it performed in your account.²

Audience Insights

Learn more about the interests of the audience being served your ad. See the user group’s that Google identifies as driving the top performance and understand what creative works best with your audience.²

History Insights and Auction Insights

Use this feature to understand how the changes you made or shifts in auction competition affect your account performance.²

Demand Forecasts

This feature uses machine learning and seasonal search trends to predict emerging interests. This is highly personalized to your account meaning you will only see trends in the categories that you advertise in. Data and predictions are updated in real-time and the forecast adjusts daily to improve accuracy.²

Ross Digital Experts Help You Navigate Google Core Updates

If you’re not sure where to start, Ross is here to lend a hand. Our digital experts understand how to create and update websites to perform their best. We monitor each core update upon release to help our clients continue to rank high in search results. Contact us to get help getting your page back on top.

Endnotes:

1.Search Engine Land, 2021
2.Search Engine Land, 2021

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