What the heck is going on with all the Google updates? (Content Lab, Ep. 54)

In the past 45-ish days, Google has rolled out six different updates:

Big ups to Search Engine Roundtable for this graphic.

It doesn't help that the folks at Google are often vague (if not completely silent) on what some of these updates include, which only further exacerbates the trust issues many of us have with Google.

For example, there's the two-part core update that rolled out in June and then at the start of this month. They wouldn't say what was included. They only said that "some parts of it" weren't ready in June, so they had to break the update up. Oh, and they also said that some folks might see increases or drops in June with the first update, and those may (or may not) reverse themselves with the July update. 

Then there's the page experience update that is its own can of worms, as a story, with even Google disagreeing with itself about what impact this will have on websites, depending on who you ask.

In conjunction with the chatter regarding the impending third-party cookie block in Google Chrome, you might say a few of us content marketers are feeling a bit frayed around the edges, emotionally.

And that is why we are dedicating an entire episode to a conversation about the waterfall of Google news recently, including topics such as:

• What are the big-picture takeaways from all of these stories?
• What is motivating all of these different updates and moves?
• Should we be panicking or not panicking?
• How is it possible to stay on top of everything or understand what is happening?
• How is this related to the Apple mail privacy news?
• Is Google really the "good guy" in the data privacy conversation?

Also, during the conversation, I made a mistake. I inadvertently said the new page performance report is in Google Analytics, when it is actually in Google Search Console. Sorry about that, got a little tongue-tied after almost an hour of Google product talk!

Enjoy! 

Listen to the episode

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Related resources

• Apple Mail privacy news spooks email marketers, newsletter creators
• Google June 2021 core update live, July core update coming
• Google's June page experience core update will be mobile first, then desktop
• Finally, Google page experience core update is rolling out
• Google July 2021 core update rolling out over next 2 weeks
• Too many internal links in content can confuse Google about site structure
• Google punts third-party cookie ban to 2023 for 'responsible planning'

Until next time! 👋