Google Algorithm June 2019 Update: Changes & Effects

It has happened. We’ve been waiting, and, boom, here it is. The very next update from Google is born. Sounds familiar, huh?

Everyone in the SEO community knows that major algorithmic updates from Google take place several times a year. Sometimes folks from Google tell us about their intentions, sometimes (almost always) they keep silent. How are things going this time?

With so much fuss going on in the SEO world, we’ll help you clear the air and figure out what happened and how to deal with it. Read on to know more about the latest Google’s algorithm update in June 2019.

Google rolled its broad core algorithm update, which was pointedly named June 2019 Core Update. Somehow it became the custom that Google rarely told us about their algorithmic updates. But this time everything was precisely the opposite. Google announced about their June update the day before its launch in Tweeter!

This is a tell-tale sign that the Google algorithm update in June 2019 was big and significant. Danny Sullivan agrees that this update is worth our attention since it does have the power to mix everything up.

The complete rollout of Google’s June 2019 Core Update took five days, in the period from June 3, 2019, through June 8, 2019. Admittedly, it’s not the longest period for Google to roll out its core updates. Sometimes it took a week or even several weeks. This is because Google has a great many of servers and data centers worldwide, and it does take a lot of time to update each of them.

One more thing one has to mention is that Google rolled out yet another update that overlapped with their broad algorithmic update. The second update from Google was launched on June 04, 2019, and it’s called diversity update. Its main goal is to show no more than two results from the same domain for a particular search query in the top results.

Google states that diversity update isn’t a part of their core algorithmic update. However, it may strike you as identical. Technically, your Google Analytics and Search Console data could be affected by both updates. And if you want to find out which one impacted your site, dig deeper into your website data. Indeed, it’s not an easy task to reveal the very reason for your website traffic drop. But if you want to be ahead of your competitors, you have to weed out stale SEO tactics and think out-of-the-box.

Pay careful attention to the diversity update if you have websites that have more than two pages that rank for the similar search query in Google. Track and analyze how this Google’s update affects the rankings of such websites.

Admittedly, Google’s June 2019 Update wasn’t left unnoticed. Even a cursory look over Google Analytics would be enough to spot changes in search results. Some website owners claim that they lost more than 50% of their organic traffic; others say that they gained +30% traffic load. There are so many talks on the issue that you can easily get lost in the fray of opposed views.

Which of them is right? Actually, each of the viewpoints is true.

We’ve spotted a 10-15% traffic decline through all of our projects. And just a couple of them started boosting their rankings.

Our Head of SEO Department, Steve Letissier, comments on the latest Google core algorithm update: “We’ve noted that some random search queries that were in top search results only thanks for domain authority are currently dropping. Instead, some specialized and field-specific search queries are growing. This seems to suggest that Google is still putting a high value on quality content and better user experience.”

Steve chatted with his peers asking for their comments on the latest Google’s Update and here’s what he managed to worm out:

Steve Letissier: (04.06.19 11:30)

Hey guys! How are your websites going after Google’s June 2019 Update? Have you faced traffic collapse? Cause I’ve had 10-15% decline in organic traffic through each of my projects.

SEO expert #1: (04.06.19 12:30)

Hi Steve! Yeap, my juridical website has been hit as well. I’m receiving half of what I used to! Websites dedicated to safety issues and real estate seem to have left unchanged.

SEO expert #2: (04.06.19 14:30)

Wow! I’m the one who has 15-20% traffic boost, Asia Nigeria markets. Travel topic.

SEO expert #3: (04.06.19 17:00)

Some of our articles (about 70%) dropped out of Top 100 search results. At the moment we’re trying to figure out why. However, about 30% of our pages obtained +30 traffic boost.

SEO expert #4: (04.06.19 17:06)

My landing page declined by 1-5 positions. Custom software/home improvement topics are left unchanged. Local and national search requests don’t show any sign of fluctuation.

SEO expert #5: (07.06.19 14:46)

I see:

– traffic of about 2/3 e-commerce drop 10-15%;

– 1/10 e-commerce sites traffic increases by 15%;

– 90% info sites traffic drop 20%.

So, it isn’t significant, but it is noticeable. 

Sure, even small setbacks in traffic loss are cause for worry, since they’re hitting where it hurts most: the profit. One more reason that could have caused organic traffic fluctuations is Whit Monday that took place on June 5, 2019. Traditionally, traffic collapses occur during the holiday season. So, if you have seen even the minor changes don’t blame just Google for it.

One more reason for your rankings dancing may be the previous Google core algorithm update from March 2019. Its main goal wasn’t merely to punish websites for links manipulation. Google’s algorithm March Update was centered on users and their desires. It follows that websites’ rankings drops may be closely connected with the fact of total disconnection with the target audience. June 2019 Core Update just multiplied the negative effect of previous core algorithm changes.

Many website owners and webmasters noticed a drastic decline in their websites’ organic traffic rankings. Moreover, even authoritative and trustworthy websites were wronged with the June 2019 Core Update. And Daily Mail found itself among the most badly-hit sites.

It’s Daily Mail, Carl! Wikipedia claims that the Daily Mail is one of the most visited English-language newspaper websites in the world, with over 189.5 million visitors per month, and 11.7 million visitors daily, as of 2014.

We’re pretty much sure that your website and Daily Mail’s are thousand light years apart! In fact, there is a laughably small number of sites that can compete with a company like Daily Mail that has a vast backlink profile, perfect domain history and heaps of blog posts that people read and share. What could have gone wrong? Anyway, the fact remains – guys from dailymail.co.uk lost about 50% of organic traffic.

Jesus Mendez, who apparently works for Daily Mail, shared this news in the Google Webmaster Help thread.

As of now, it’s unclear whether Daily Mail is going to get its well-deserved traffic back or not.

So here’s what we can tell about the latest update:

Your website’s good standing won’t save you from evenhanded Google

As we can see, the newly-arrived update doesn’t give a damn about your website’s former greatness, June 2019 Core Update detects your downsides and slaps you with a massive traffic rankings slump in SERPs.

This time, your quality content and authoritative backlink profile wouldn’t shelter you from the June 2019 Update.

Many users blame Daily Mail for crappy content and poor website optimization, claiming that finally justice has been met by the hands of Google and high authority website got hit. The latest Google’s June algorithmic update brings hope to small publishers who now can compete for the better places in the SERP even with the titanic Daily Mail.

Anonymous commentator:

This is no error. Working as intended.

• Site content is bad.
• No shame, fake news is everywhere.
• Slow.
• Ads everywhere.

Barry Schwartz from Search Engine Land admits that there’s lots of speculation around Daily Mail’s visibility drop in Google. Users blame the newspaper for an excessiveness of ads, slow website speed, political bias, etc. Although Mail Online has already confirmed that Jesus Mendez indeed writes his post in the Google forums, some people still believe that his post was made by someone else.

One more company that experienced drastic results because of the latest Google’s update was CCN. The company was established in 2013 as CryptoCoinsNews. After a while, CCN started obtaining the highest amount of organic traffic on the crypto topic worldwide.

After the recent Google’s update, CCN organic traffic declined more than 71% on mobile overnight, and their daily profit diminished by more than 90%. They’re in a bad spot, aren’t they?

Interestingly, it’s still unclear what could have caused such severe traffic meltdown. CCN asked for a piece of advice from the experts at the Google Forum, but their theories for why Google has decided to literally “shut down” CCN does not appear to be entirely truthful.

Nikolaj Antonov, an expert from the Google Webmasters Forum, suggested that “YMYL” – Your Money Your Life – could have been a governing factor for CCN in the Google’s June 2019 Core Update.

Still, there’s no clear-cut answer to the cause of the immense Google-listing drop, especially when taking into account other similar sites with similar blowbacks? The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk, has experienced a 34,6% drop according to Sistrix.com:

Cointelegraph has seen a drop of 21,1% on mobile.

Many take these traffic losses as a crypto crackdown by Google. It does have some basis in truth. However, many other websites that have nothing in common with cryptocurrencies suffered as well.

Google likely starts to use its power and purify its search results with the best content for people across the globe. Guys from Google provided websites which keep on writing trashy unuseful content with a chance to think over their strategies if they don’t want to vanish in the crowd of websites with zero traffic.

After June 2019 Core Update we all could see new underrated leaders that were previously shadowed by crappy but authoritative sites. Hopefully, Google stepped in for us to get the best content on the Internet.

Here’s a list of websites that suffered the latest Google’s update:

While many sites lost traffic, many others gained. In the list of winners, who luckily avoided the even-handed Google core algorithm action, the most prominent ones are the Mirror, the Sun, the Metro and other UK online publications all gained according to Sistrix’s UK data.

Interestingly, but the websites that were denigrated after Medical Update, now are doing very well. Here’s a graph of organic traffic fluctuations of a newly-launched medical website.

Some time ago, things didn’t seem very well. But eventually, Google decided to give medical websites a ticket to its leading spots.

Takeaway #1 See the Big Picture

Whatever happens during your SEO campaign, always get ready to step back and see the big picture.

Not necessarily your traffic ups and downs signalize about your faults. It may be a sign that your users’ demands changed and they want another kind of information from you. Accordingly, Google grasps the slightest changes in users’ habits and shows up some new pages in their search results, while denigrating others. So get ready for revamps.

Also, try to avoid technical fix-ups soon after the following Google’s update. Let it flow and monitor your results.

Takeaway #2 Algorithms Advance

Ok, let’s face it — Google updates its core algorithm not just for a change. It’s about erasing users’ problems. Once the search engine spots a problem on a user’s side and finds no solution on the web page, it slaps such page with its rankings drop. No solution, no place in the Top 10.

If your stuff your website with a bunch of great keywords but provide no useful info for your users, don’t wait that Google will favor you. Mark you, your on-page and off-page SEO could be just perfect, but if you don’t care about your users, Google will turn its back to you as well.

Very soon, Google will be even better in understanding people’s intentions. Suffice it to recall their RankBrain algorithm that is getting smarter with each passing day.

Takeaway #3 Have a Third Party Review Your Site

It may be helpful to get a fresh look at your website. If that doesn’t deliver some eye-opening insights, then an SEO expert with a wealth of experience may be a solution to your unknown drawbacks.