- Jul 4, 2020
- 4,770
- 3,838
If your website got hit by Google May Algorithm Update, you have to check out this Study from Alexander Vasev on twitter.
He explains how most of the websites that got hit had identical traffic drop patterns.
He also shares a graph about Google rankings showing a query dropping off of the Top 100 and going back to its previous Top 1 position in short periods.
But the most important take is the Google Raters.
Google hires individual contractors who visit your website (usually one page, based on Google Analytics data) and they rate your website across many many aspects.
The IMPORTANT part of his study shows how all of the websites that go hit in May Core Algorithm Update were visited by a Google Rater few days before their traffic DROPPED.
If your website got HIT by this update, please check if you were visited by a Google Rated days before it happened, follow these steps:
Go to Google Analytics -> Go to Acquisition -> Referrals and search for "raterhub".
He tested this also on his website and Google raters have visited his website on 4 different occasions: May 26th (the next day after Google announced the update) - a few days later his website lost all rich snippets.
The next visit was on June 9th (the day Google announced the end of the core update rollout) - most likely they checked back to see if the website improved the aspects they didn't like that got the website penalized.
No changes were implemented and no recovery followed.
His site got visited 2 more times, making 4 times in total. What's interesting, they were looking at one exact page all 4 times.
SO, if your website got HIT by this Algorithm Update, make sure to check if you had traffic from "raterhub" referral source.
If you find out Raterhub has visited your website before your traffic dropped, you need to check which of your pages raterhub actually visited.
Most of the cases show they check only 1 of your pages on your website, so you have to go check that page and check for any potential ERROR.
If you find anything make sure to FIX everything and wait for raterhub to revisit your page.
However, this doesn't mean you will get your TRAFFIC back. I saw reports from a few people that their rankings and traffic recovered in July. Some of them claimed that had done no work on the website whatsoever.
It looks like these websites were restored manually. And while it is a good idea to try to improve your website before the next core update, there is a chance your website will recover even if you do nothing.
READ HIS WHOLE THREAD ON TWITTER
He explains how most of the websites that got hit had identical traffic drop patterns.
He also shares a graph about Google rankings showing a query dropping off of the Top 100 and going back to its previous Top 1 position in short periods.
But the most important take is the Google Raters.
Google hires individual contractors who visit your website (usually one page, based on Google Analytics data) and they rate your website across many many aspects.
The IMPORTANT part of his study shows how all of the websites that go hit in May Core Algorithm Update were visited by a Google Rater few days before their traffic DROPPED.
If your website got HIT by this update, please check if you were visited by a Google Rated days before it happened, follow these steps:
Go to Google Analytics -> Go to Acquisition -> Referrals and search for "raterhub".
He tested this also on his website and Google raters have visited his website on 4 different occasions: May 26th (the next day after Google announced the update) - a few days later his website lost all rich snippets.
The next visit was on June 9th (the day Google announced the end of the core update rollout) - most likely they checked back to see if the website improved the aspects they didn't like that got the website penalized.
No changes were implemented and no recovery followed.
His site got visited 2 more times, making 4 times in total. What's interesting, they were looking at one exact page all 4 times.
SO, if your website got HIT by this Algorithm Update, make sure to check if you had traffic from "raterhub" referral source.
If you find out Raterhub has visited your website before your traffic dropped, you need to check which of your pages raterhub actually visited.
Most of the cases show they check only 1 of your pages on your website, so you have to go check that page and check for any potential ERROR.
If you find anything make sure to FIX everything and wait for raterhub to revisit your page.
However, this doesn't mean you will get your TRAFFIC back. I saw reports from a few people that their rankings and traffic recovered in July. Some of them claimed that had done no work on the website whatsoever.
It looks like these websites were restored manually. And while it is a good idea to try to improve your website before the next core update, there is a chance your website will recover even if you do nothing.
READ HIS WHOLE THREAD ON TWITTER
