Google has released a new update: here comes the July 2021 core update
This time one cannot speak of surprise, since it was widely anticipated, even if the timing is still singular: already on the day of July 1 (late afternoon for us Europeans) Google has in fact started the roll out of the July 2021 core update, the second part of the great algorithmic update started with the June 2021 core update last month. So let’s summarize the information that we have and try to figure out what is going on in the Google algorithm system.
Google launches its new update: July 2021 core update
The announcement of the start of this core update has been even tighter than usual: the twitter account @searchliaison simply wrote that the update “previously announced is now being launched” (around 18.oo, italian time) and that generally these interventions are completed in one or two weeks.
The tweet is completed with the usual directions for sites negatively affected by the update and looking for information to recover the ranking, which are the same as all other previous core updates launched in the past.
In the recent history of Google’s algorithm updates, however, this is the first time the company has officially announced two such close-ups: in the words of Danny Sullivan, This solution was necessary because for time reasons it was not possible to insert all the changes planned in the June 2021 Core Update, and so it was decided to split the update into two parts.
Months of great intensity at Google’s
The July 2021 Core Update completes a quarter of great work on Google’s algorithms, which have created some disruption to Serps and brought the SEO on the usual roller coaster. Just to recapitulate the most recent interventions, we had:
- The update of the search algorithm for product reviews, product reviews update, started on April 8 and finished on April 22.
- IThe June 2021 core update, started on June 2 and ended on June 12. It was an update that lasted less than the previous ones (10 days in all) and that gave seemingly weaker effects in terms of movements in SERP.
- The page experience update, which began on June 15 and is currently being released up until the end of August, according to communications from Google.
- The update against spam, released in two moments – on the 23 and 28 June
- And now the main update of July, launched right on July 1.
Effects on SERPs
All these innovations have also made it difficult to identify the possible causes of fluctuations in the ranking, which never as in this period can be related to core updates, new factors that assess the experience provided to users or something completely independent of these interventions, such as manual actions. In this sense, it is even more difficult to diagnose with certainty from which specific update a site has been hit, or whether rather the eventual collapse (or, on the contrary, growth) is due to a combination of updates and factors.
There is, however, to say that not all these updates can hit the same sites: if, in fact, the two core updates have the potential to have an impact on the largest amount of websites (since they are widely distributed to all search results), spam and defamation update has a much more limited scope, because it targets specific types of content and pages.
What to expect from the July 2021 Core Update
In the June 2021 Core Update presentation, Google stated that most sites would not notice the impact of either major update. In fact, as said, the one in June had not caused obvious damage, and it only remains to wait for the next few weeks to understand if this update in July also follows the same path.
In any case, the sites negatively affected by the core update must always follow the same path: do not look for miracle solutions, because there are no specific actions to be taken to recover and because a negative impact on positioning might not mean that there is something wrong with the pages, but try to understand what has changed in Google’s ratings – and so, whether there is a search intent modification related to the query, whether a competitor addressed the topic better, and so on.
Generally, SEOs think that for a recovery of the positions lost after a core update it is necessary to wait (at least) for the next update: we will see if with these close-ups will be so, or if instead the July 2021 core update will feel different and on different pages.
