Your ranking decline is likely not due to an update and good luck trying to figure out the ranking factors impacting your site.

您的排名下降可能不是由于更新和祝您好運來找出影響您網站的排名因素所致。

In covering Google algorithm updates for almost twenty-years now, one trend you notice over and over again is how SEOs tend to do two things. Many SEOs blame a Google algorithm update for their ranking declines and many SEOs often try to figure out which ranking factors they need to work on for a specific site. The thing is, often this is the wrong way to go about Google algorithm updates.

在涵蓋近二十年來的Google算法更新中，您會發現一遍又一遍的趨勢是SEO如何完成兩件事。許多SEO都將排名下降歸咎于Google算法的更新，許多SEO經常試圖弄清楚他們需要為特定網站處理哪些排名因素。事實是，通常這是進行Google算法更新的錯誤方法。

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In my keynote during our virtual SMX Next last month, I covered the past 20 years of Google algorithm updates and what SEOs need to focus on in the future. I later hosted a panel with a few veteran SEOs to discuss Google algorithms, I asked these experts, what do SEOs often get wrong about these Google updates.

在上個月虛擬SMX的主題演講中，我介紹了Google算法的過去20年更新以及SEO未來需要關注的重點。后來，我主持了一個由幾位資深SEO組成的小組，討論Google算法，我問這些專家，SEO經常對這些Google更新有什么誤解。

It wasn’t the update

這不是更新

Your ranking decline (or increase) was probably not due to that recent Google algorithm update. Yes, it is possible, but you first need “to have a [web site code] change log, you have to know what changes you made and when and be able to very definitely correlate” any changes you made that may have impacted your rankings. If you made zero changes and you lost 40% of your traffic on the same day as an algorithm update, “yeah that’s probably the update,” Carolyn Shelby, manager of SEO at ESPN said. But if you “made 80 changes the week before the update, we lost the traffic two days before the update, probably not the update,” she added.

您排名下降（或增加）的原因可能不是最近的Google算法更新引起的。是的，這是可能的，但是您首先需要“擁有一個[網站代碼]更改日志，您必須知道您進行了哪些更改以及何時以及能夠非常明確地關聯”所有可能影響排名的更改 。ESPN SEO經理Carolyn Shelby說，如果您進行零更改，并且在算法更新的同一天丟失了40％的流量，那么“是的，這可能是更新。” 但是，如果您“在更新前一周進行了80次更改，那么我們在更新前兩天（可能不是更新）就失去了流量，”她補充道。

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One example Shelby gave at ESPN was around the time Google announced the launch of RankBrain. Truth is, when Google announced it, it actually went live months and months prior to its official announcement. In any event, the people at ESPN felt a ranking issue the company was experiencing was directly related to RankBrain. But Shelby said, “You need to calm down, I’m sure, this has nothing to do with this, we broke something else.” And when they fixed the issue they had with an AMP implementation, traffic returned. It was not related to any algorithm update Google released, but rather a change made to the site.

謝爾比在ESPN上舉的一個例子大約是Google宣布啟動RankBrain的時候。事實是，當Google宣布它時，它實際上已經在正式宣布之前的幾個月上線了。無論如何，ESPN的員工都認為公司遇到的排名問題與RankBrain直接相關。但是謝爾比說：“我敢肯定，你需要冷靜下來，這與我們無關，我們還打破了其他東西。” 當他們解決了AMP實施中遇到的問題時，流量就返回了。它與Google發布的任何算法更新都沒有關系，而是與網站的更改有關。

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I brought up the nofollow attribute change where Google would treat the nofollow link attribute differently. The truth is, Google never fully launched the change — not yet at least and when it does, it won’t impact rankings. But SEOs were citing this as a reason for ranking changes, when it was not.

我提出了nofollow屬性更改，其中Google將以不同的方式對待nofollow鏈接屬性。事實是，Google從未完全啟動這一更改-至少現在還沒有，并且這樣做不會影響排名。但SEO卻將此作為排名變化的原因，而實際上并非如此。

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Correlating ranking factors

相關排名因素

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Another thing SEOs have been trying to do for ages is trying to figure out which ranking signals or factors are most important for a specific update. Back in the old days, yes, we know Penguin was about links, Panda was about content. In the earlier days, SEOs would be able to track Google Dances and PageRank values directly towards rankings the next day. But now, we really cannot do that.

SEO多年來一直試圖做的另一件事是試圖弄清楚哪些排名信號或因素對于特定更新最重要。過去，是的，我們知道企鵝是關于鏈接的，熊貓是關于內容的。在早期，SEO可以直接在第二天的排名中跟蹤Google Dances和PageRank的值。但是現在，我們確實無法做到這一點。

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Eric Wu, VP of product growth at Honey Science said, “SEOs are spending too much time trying to figure out like what correlation matches the algorithm update.” The more “you understand machine learning” the more you know that you cannot figure this out. “Weighted values of these things the behavior doesn’t happen on all the sites similarly or the same way right,” Eric said.

Honey Science產品增長副總裁Eric Wu表示：“ SEO花費太多時間試圖弄清楚相關性與算法更新是否匹配。” 您對機器學習的了解越多，您就知道自己無法弄清楚。埃里克說：“這些東西的加權值不會在所有站點上以相似或相同的方式發生。”

Focus on your web site, not the algorithm

關注您的網站，而不是算法

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In short, instead of obsessing about the changes Google is making to its algorithm, focus on your web site. You can end up spending too much time chasing your tail, when you can use that time making your own web site better. Focus on what your users want, build more and better content. Build better tools and features on your site. Make your site’s navigation easier for your users, make the site load faster and make the user experience better.

簡而言之，您不必關注Google對算法所做的更改，而應關注您的網站。當您可以利用這段時間來改善自己的網站時，您可能會花太多時間去追逐自己的尾巴。關注用戶的需求，構建更多更好的內容。在您的網站上構建更好的工具和功能。使用戶的網站導航更加輕松，使網站加載速度更快，并為用戶帶來更好的體驗。

Those are all better uses of your time than obsessing over Google algorithm updates.

與癡迷Google算法更新相比，這些都是更好地利用時間的方式。

來源：Barry Schwartz