These Google Updates will Affect Your Rankings in 2023

What do Google -Updates have in common with the tax? They come reliably every year – and often bring helplessness with them. Because especially for people who are not deeply rooted in the topic of SEO, the changes are often difficult to understand. All you really want to know is why the rankings have collapsed – and what you can do about it…

We create an overview and take a look at the most important Google updates of the past year. Along the way, we’ll explain what the changes mean, how they’ll affect your website, and what you can do now.

Table of Contents

Why are there Google updates at all?

As a search engine, Google is constantly striving to improve the user experience. In short, Google wants to get better at providing the right answers to search queries. All searchers should have as pleasant an experience as possible when using Google and ultimately be satisfied with Google.

Therefore, search engine is constantly being further developed and adapted to people’s needs. After all the digital landscape and our usage behavior are constantly changing. Because a lot has happened from the first Internet-enabled computers to mobile surfing and voice search via Alexa, Siri & Co.

Accordingly, there are regular Google updates, which ensure that the search engine can map the (increasingly demanding) needs of the people in the best possible way. This is the only way that Google can maintain its supremacy and continue to assert itself as the most popular search engine on the market.

You should use these Google updates in 2023 the have a look.

1. Page Experience: the user experience in focus

The Page Experience Update was one of the major adjustments in 2021. In general, it includes factors that first seem a bit off for the core topic of SEO. This update basically asks three important questions to website operators:

Is the website secure?
Is the website mobile optimized?

Is the website quick?

These three core questions are represented by various factors. The security question is about whether the connection (HTTPS/SSL) is secured appropriately and whether potential Viruses, spam or malware emanate from the website.

The question about mobile optimization results from the Mobile First Index. For some time now, Google only reads the mobile version of a website. Information that is not included in the mobile version is also not taken into account for the ranking. In doing so, Google is taking into account the changed user behavior, which in percentage terms has the most mobile inquiries. Mobile optimization is correspondingly important.

The question of speed is ultimately aimed at the so-called core web vitals. These are made up of three components: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). These three factors deal with the following questions:

How long does it take for the main content of the website to be visible?
How long does it take until Content elements can be actively used?

Do website elements move when reloaded in the layout?
Summarized: How long does it take until the website really makes sense and can be used smoothly?

The update was rolled out in late summer 2021 and initially had rather minor effects on the rankings. Since then, however, Google has been constantly changing the weighting. Overall, it can be expected that the Page Experience will be an important factor in terms of search engine optimization in the long term. At the same time, the update has a major advantage: the page experience specifies more clearly than ever what is technically important to Google when it comes to optimization. As a result, there is now a catalog of standard measures that can be checked for each website and can be traced with numbers. The core web vitals and also mobile optimization can e.g. B. easily monitored via the Google Search Console.

The Core Web Vitals have their own control panel in Google Search Console.

2. MUM: Multitask Unified Model as context search

Google has always been working to Expand understanding of search queries and also be able to better assign possible content to be displayed. There have already been a lot of updates to speed up this process.

In 2015, a base for machine learning was rolled out with Rankbrain. With this, Google wanted to better understand the search intent behind unknown search queries. In 2017, BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) was the first step toward context. By processing natural language, Google can link semantically related terms and thus understand and reproduce a larger picture.

With MUM, Google is now taking the next step. Information from different media (text, image, video, audio …) and different languages should be linked in order to find the information that matches the search query recognized. A change in Google’s orientation also takes place here: weg from a mere search engine to an answer engine.

MUM will cause Google to show more answers to questions directly in the SERPs (search results) . as is already happening now through the featured snippets. Finally, the update creates greater understanding and allows the search engine to capture entire topics.

For website operators, the update means: Google is increasingly competing with the website itself. It is becoming increasingly important for content to be user-friendly and as comprehensive as possible at the same time. In this way, you can persuade Google to pick out relevant passages from your text and thus give you visibility above the organic search results.

How this Google update and future extensions will actually affect but only time will tell. However, it is important to keep this search engine approach in mind.

3. Product Reviews Update: own analyzes & reviews

Google likes it when content is created that is as unique as possible. That means: It’s not just about researching information, but possibly carrying out your own tests, analyses, and experiments. In this way, new information, facts, and figures are made available that cannot be found anywhere else.

This is exactly what the Product Reviews Update is aiming for. This update aims to ensure that users have easy access to high-quality reviews, which play a major role in purchasing decisions. Google itself first published a guideline for reviews and later made a statement on the ranking of reviews.

This update has caused noticeable changes in the search results of various languages. And this is despite the fact that it has only been rolled out in English-speaking countries so far. If you want to rank well with reviews in the future, you should pay attention to a few important quality factors:

Will the product be all-encompassing, both in terms of content as well as visuals, presented?

Does the review include content that exceeds the manufacturer’s specifications?
Are different content elements and media forms (image, audio, video) used?
Are there comparisons and Demarcations to competing products or previous models?

Is decision criteria received and advantages and disadvantages explained?
Is the review authentic, so the person actually tested the product himself?

So basically it’s about the same thing that Google is always about: providing rich, satisfying, and original content. And that is now increasingly in the area of reviews. The 2023 update will probably also be played out in Germany. If reviews play a role on your website, you should check them as soon as possible and optimize them if necessary. This is the only way to ensure that the rankings don’t suddenly collapse.

What the Google updates mean for your SEO

2021 has once again made it clear that SEO is indeed like the tax. Because every time you think you’re done, it starts all over again. So SEO is an ongoing process. Just as Google keeps trying to do justice to searchers, you as a website operator must also follow Google updates and people’s interests.

So make sure you internalize this processuality of SEO. This means that you should keep an eye on all relevant metrics and rankings in order to be able to react to possible crashes caused by Google updates. If possible, you should regularly find out about new developments or engage appropriate experts who will inform you and offer recommendations for action. This is the only way to have long-term success with an SEO strategy.