How to Recover from Google Fred Update

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The search giant Google has only one agenda: improving search results quality to help online users find what they hunt for.

To provide refined search results, Google occasionally brings crucial updates in its algorithm based on which it ranks websites.

The “Fred” update is the alleged step taken by Google on March 7th, 2017, to target websites with:

Poor quality content
Too many ads
Excessive affiliate links

The websites created to make revenue suffered greatly due to Google Fred Update, as they saw a massive decline in their SERP ranking.

No need to be panic if this update hits your website because Google is generous and never back off from helping online users and webmasters to improve the search experience. However, it is our fault that we never follow what Google stresses.

This post further explains how you can recover from the Google Fred Update to sustain rankings. Read on!

See What Google’s Webmaster Guidelines Say

The all-great Google has already mentioned in its webmaster guidelines that make pages for users, not for search engines. This single statement covers everything one needs to create a high-quality website. Besides this, Google says don’t trick your users, which many websites do not follow.

Knowing Google’s Webmaster Guidelines is crucial for every webmaster, and websites that strictly follow all the rules enjoy high rankings. However, the problem is that many overlook its significance, which later proves disastrous, just like what happened after the Google Fred Update. So, if you do not know about Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, read it first because you will find all the answers in it for sure.

Create Content to Help Users

Every update from Google stresses quality. Now, you should understand that Google is not in the mood to take things lightly. So, your main focus should be to create quality content that solves the problems of your users.

Make quality content creation your top priority! Your content should offer value to the users. If you do so, you can naturally notice improvements in your search rankings.

You can follow Google’s Guidelines on Creating Valuable Content for more details. However, there are a few things that you have to keep in mind when reviving the content of your website.

Do not create content that has been already created.
Focus more on your users, not on the keywords.
Try to write around users’ queries.
Be genuine and explain from all aspects. Show both sides of the coin.
To sustain the interest of your users, serve content in different forms, including videos and infographics.

If you want to make Google and users love your website, be authentic and don’t focus much on creating profitable content and if you do serve content naturally.

Do Not Overload Your Pages with Ads

No doubt ads are crucial from revenue’s perspective, but your focus should be your users first. However, the problem is that many websites use deceptive advertisements, which results in a bad user experience.

The Google Fred Update is the step specifically taken to motivate webmasters to create a genuine experience and penalize ad-heavy websites. So, do not overload your content with ads because it makes it difficult for users to differentiate ads from site’s content. If you use ads on your site, make sure they could easily be identified as ads to avoid deceiving readers for clicking on ads. This way you can be sure not to be penalized by Google.

Further, do not use any pop-up messages on your site that make content less accessible on mobile devices because it is a sign of poor user experience. Thus, do not overload your web pages with too many ads.

Audit Your Backlinks to Clean Bad Ones

You can use backlink check tools like SEMrush and Ahref to analyze your backlinks to ensure your link profile appears natural. If you find links that you do not recognize or seem suspicious, disavow those links in Google Search Console. It will make Google understand not to consider those links when ranking your website.

Apart from disavowing those links, take action to remove them manually. For this, contact the website owners to ask them to remove links to your site.

Google take different parameters into account when determining your backlink profile, which includes type of link, location, anchor text, and others.

Over to You

You can follow the points as mentioned above to almost get rid of Google Fred Update. Further, work on your website to make it as per Google’s recommendations. If you do so, you will continue to enjoy and sustain high rankings for your website.

If you have any questions to ask or want to know more about improving your site’s quality, contact us or sign up for a Free SEO Audit of your website.

Also Read: The Best Way To Tackle Google Fred Update