Google algorithm updates are what keep SEO professionals up at night. Google gives us little guidance on these updates, forcing us to rely on our own data and experience to recover our traffic.
The best case scenario is to never have to recover from an algorithm update in the first place. But if your traffic has suffered because of a Google update, it can be fixed.
The client
This client experienced a 30% drop in traffic as a result of a Google update. They were at a loss for how to proceed, and know the site needed to get back to fundamental SEO best practices. The website had a large amount of content, and even after being penalized, had millions of visitors.
The strategy
When managing large websites with legacy content, it's often tough to make decisions on how to organize content. Inflo worked with the client to prioritize their most important pieces of content, and optimize those for search engines.
Inflo also made recommendations on how to best organize their content to send the strongest signals to search engines. This approach wasn't just beneficial for gaining more traffic, but also in improving usability for their readers.
Finally, Inflo made worked with the client to implement key technical optimizations.
The result
One challenge of recovering from a Google update is that your site typically won't see a full recovery until Google launches the next update. This also means you are in a race against time to make improvements before they launch the next update.
As the client implemented Inflo's recommendations, we began to see minor traffic improvements. This was a sign we were making the right changes.
Finally, Google launched another update, and traffic rebounded considerably. The first month of growth was 8%, then 25%. After a few months, the client's site was growing at over 50% year-over-year.
After the rebound, this client continued working with Inflo Digital to craft a content strategy that leveraged SEO. We also continued making technical improvements as a safeguard against getting penalized in the future.