Breaking news! Google has started rolling out an update to its algorithm, dubbed by the SEO community as ‘Fred’. The NZ SEO blogs are buzzing about the massive fluctuations in Rankings being observed in NZ and around the world. Did your rankings rise or drop with this change? Now would be a good time to get your rankings and your SEO Services strategy reviewed!

Which sites were fried by Fred, and which have benefited?

Google neither confirms nor denies the Google Fred update, though initial indications from SEO masters around the world is that it is an extensive update. Early reports show the update seems to be impacting websites with low quality back-links rather and websites with low quality content. Some webmasters report their sites have dropped 100’s of rankings, others have gone from nowhere to pole position in the SERPs! We recommend you read our previous blogs on back-links and content led SEO for further information on why your website may have gained or lost rankings with the ‘Google Fred’ algorithm update.

What have we observed in the NZ search results?

Over the past few days, we’ve noticed rankings continuing to fluctuate for New Zealand websites. We’re also seeing a few random results, such as weak web pages ranking 1st on Google then suddenly dropping out completely. We’ve also noticed the organic results from desktop browsers seem to be a lot more localised. We’re unsure how the rankings will settle, but if your SEO strategy has a link-building bias or is not content led, then you should be very concerned! On the other hand, if you’ve followed a content-led technical SEO strategy then relax, you’re no doubt going to enjoy the Fred update and future Google algorithm updates!

What should you do about ‘Fred’?

There’s not much you can do at the moment other than the following:

• monitor your rankings and your competitors rankings over the next few days; don’t panic, expect fluctuations
• if your planning on making technical SEO or content enhancements to your site, do them now and submit the new pages to Google immediately
• stop any link-building activity now
• keep an eye on your webmaster tools / search console account for any manual web spam penalties; contact us if you get a penalty or are concerned

If you’re concerned about the Fred update then contact one of our Search Engine Optimization specialists on 0508 254-258, click here to contact us or learn more about best practice SEO at one of our popular SEO training courses.