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How the March 2019 Google Search Algorithm Core Update Impacted Our Clients

Posted on by Darrell Jones
How the March 2019 Google Search Algorithm Core Update Impacted Our Clients
Posted September 20, 2019 by Darrell Jones

Insights: March 2019 Google Search Core Update

The SEO industry got confirmation of a Google search algorithm update that Google dubbed, “March 2019 Core Update”. Giving it a succinct title to pinpoint the update to a specific time is important for SEO professionals for analyzing any keyword ranking fluctuations both positive and negative. Google will provide some insights as to what the update consists of; providing us with an indicator for notating and monitoring changes moving forward.

The SEO community provides a lot of analysis and insights; especially when an update is released. After the March 2019 update, there was a lot of chatter in the community as websites and industries were being impacted differently.

Included in that chatter:

  • Rankings in #1 spot and dropped off 5-10 spots.
  • Depression of traffic coinciding with the release date.
  • Positive keyword movement for some that were historically in the #2 spot moving up to #1.
  • SEO results experienced both positive and negative in the healthcare, medical, beauty/health, and medicine industries.

Variety of Results

When SEO professionals see a shift in keyword rankings, it sets off alarms and prompts them to investigate. Some of our competitors saw negative movement in some keywords and positive movement in others. While fluctuation is normal, we saw a different pattern than what is normally seen in day-to-day.

When we realized an update had been released, we immediately look at what is going on with our keyword rankings. During this initial investigation, we found that our client’s competitors were seeing the same impact.

As we got deeper into our investigation, we saw more positive movement, overall. In some instances, we were up in keyword visibility as much as 11%, with an overall average about 5%.

An Analysis of SERP

The next step was to look at the Search Engines Results Page (SERP) for every keyword. We collected our data and found that in most instances, an editorial type website or a site with blog-like content was performing favorably, more than it had before.

An Analysis of Organic Traffic

We analyzed our organic traffic patterns and found that most of our client sites saw an increase in organic traffic and were following a similar trend in the monthly comparisons. Our client’s organic traffic continued to grow.

Long-Term Strategy

Our SEO strategy of striving for our client’s success by building engaging and rich content has proven that with every Google update that has been released, we continue to see long-term success to our organic objectives.