What do the latest Google updates mean to your dealership’s SEO?
Google continually keeps search engine optimization specialists, much like ourselves, on our toes. When will the next update be here, and how is it going to affect our client’s rankings? Luckily, since we do not apply automation to our SEO strategy at Dealer Authority, we can make swift changes to make sure we are always playing nicely with Google. The January Google Core Update made some changes that all dealers dabbling in SEO should be aware of.
Say ‘goodbye’ to “Spot Zero.”
You know you are winning at the SEO game when your website gains a featured snippet. For those who may not be familiar, featured snippets “are special boxes where the format of regular listings is reversed, showing the descriptive snippet first,” according to Google. Here’s an example of a featured snippet that Dealer Authority has earned.
In the past, you could earn the featured snippet on page one of the search results and have a link ranking directly after it. As of January 22nd, only the snippet will remain. Honestly, we aren’t too bothered by it. Anything in addition to a featured snippet on page one, in our opinion, is just gravy.
The latest broad core update still plays by the golden E.A.T. rules.
Google anticipates industries that rely on SERPs (so that includes the automotive industry) to see some ranking dips; however, there shouldn’t be any cause for alarm and here’s why: if you are applying E.A.T. to your content strategy, your website should be able to weather the algorithm update storm. Google will continue to have core updates, but using methods of expert, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness to your content is how your featured snippets stay featured, and your ranking keeps rising. It seems like a no-brainer, but you be surprised how often content that is included on websites that had nothing to do with the industry that the website it tied to. As our Social Strategist, Brian West recently mentioned in a recent Innovation Minute, don’t add spaghetti recipes to your dealership’s website. It may sound tasty, but it does nothing to help your website’s SEO or E.A.T.
If you want to learn more about E.A.T., check out our blog from August of 2018. This where E.A.T. indeed came into play for the Google Algorithm.
If your dealership is seeing significant impacts after the January updates, maybe it’s time to consider an SEO provider that can pivot and shift to meet Google’s ever-demanding needs to rank on page one. Automation does nothing to show the level of your specific dealership’s expertise, authoritativeness in your field (i.e. your dealership’s ‘why buy’ messaging), and build trust in your customers. Any syndicated content will be rejected by these algorithm updates, so please be aware of these “automation” tactics. They are not your ranking friends.