SEO: Core Update November 2021

16/12/2021
  • November 2021 Core Update closes a busy year for SEO. After last summer´s changes, this one was still pending.

  • By now, anyone who has even the slightest connection to SEO knows that algorithms are constantly evolving. They periodically receive improvements and adjustments to make them more effective or, at least, to make them do their job from the point of view of the companies that develop them.

    Google is particularly active in this regard. Those of us who have an online store positioned, fear these changes because they can make our rankings that are generating sales get worse. It is true that not everything is going to be bad: sometimes they benefit us, weighting better our website.

    But as it is still a lottery, it is important that we are attentive to everything that happens to -at least- understand the changes in behavior and take corrective measures when possible.
  • Background: SEO changes in 2021

  • To better understand what is happening, it is worth looking back, specifically to last summer. For whatever reason, Google seems to have a predilection for that period of the year (one still remembers August 2018 update, which was among the most important).

    Between the months of June and July, there were two consecutive Core Updates or, to be precise, the same update in two phases to release part of the functionalities as they became available. In this case, it stood out for incorporating the Multitask Unified Model (MUM), which we talked about at length in the post we linked and which you can check for more information.

    Before the Core Update, at the beginning of the month, an anti-spam update was published to "disable" the relevance of unnatural links. It seems that they were already paving the way to clean up the SERPs for Christmas campaign.
  • November 2021 Core Update

  • After that summer movement, we lived a period of relative calm. SERPs remained stable for almost six months... but November arrived and, just before Black Friday, Google announced the release of a new algorithm update that, this time, would take up to two weeks to be 100% operational.

    This was announced on November 17 and from that moment on, volatility in SERPS skyrocketed.
  • Moreover, and this is a peculiarity of this update, after the logical peak of activity and the subsequent drop, we have entered a very volatile period that is extending throughout December. You can see it in this graph from Semrush Sensor.
  • What does this mean? It means that we are facing a more momentous change than could be expected. The movement is permanent and the rankings continue to "dance" insistently. In fact, if we compare the data with July, volatility has increased by up to 12%.
  • What if I am affected?

  • If you have noticed that your rankings and, consequently, your traffic has dropped in the last few weeks, chances are that you have been affected by the algorithmic change.

    In any case, keep in mind that this type of updates do not penalize, as other specific filters do. That drop in relevance is simply because other competitors are being weighted better, and that is why they appear in a higher position.

    If you take a look at the losers, which is always something to guide us a bit, it seems that those who have suffered the most from the rigors of the update have been online dictionaries, knowledge bases and sites selling stock images... Sites that have a huge amount of URLs with a bare content.

    In principle, there is nothing broken that you need to fix, but they do recommend that you ask yourself some questions to optimize your site (especially in terms of content):

    •  Does my content provide a greater differential value than that of competitors?
    •  Is it a content created to generate organic traffic or is it really designed for people?
    •  Is it correctly written from an orthographic and syntactic point of view?
    •  Am I not abusing advertising?
    •  Does my store have a good design and does it work correctly on all devices?
    •  Does my content convey confidence and authority with respect to the topic I am talking about?
    •  Do people behind the content have a track record that endorses them as professionals?
    •  How original is my content, and is it sure that it is not available on another website with exactly the same wording?
    •  Is it a deep content that goes beyond the superficial?

    I understand that it may seem somewhat subjective, but it is necessary to make this reflection to adjust our website to Google "wishes".
  • How has your eCommerce been doing in this last core update of November 2021? Share all the details with us, we are looking forward to hearing from you.

  • Images| Unsplash, Semrush and Twitter.

Jordi Ordóñez


Jordi Ordóñez is an eCommerce and SEO consultant with more than 16 years of experience in online projects. He has advised clients such as Castañer, Textura, Acumbamail, Kartox or Casa Ametller. Write in the official blog of Prestashop, BrainSINS, Marketing4ecommerce, Photography eCommerce, Socialancer, eCommerce-news.es and SEMRush among others. He is an editor on the Oleoshop blog.

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