Google released a broad core algorithm update on June 2, 2021. This will be followed by another core update in July and an update on the Page Experience later in June. There’s been a lot going on in Google’s algorithm lately. What effect does this have on Google ranking?

Historically, Google has released a basic Google algorithm update every few months. It’s only been six months since the last core update in December 2020. Previously, it had been seven months since the May 2020 core update.

Google will release a second update next month, specifically the July 2021 core update. Why is Google releasing two different updates one month after the next? Some of the company’s planned improvements in the June 2021 update are simply not fully ready for release this month. That’s why Google decided to move forward with the part that’s ready in June, and the rest will be released next month.

Not only is a second major update coming soon, but Google is expected to roll out a Page Experience update in mid-June. We don’t expect the page quality update to have a big impact on search rankings, though we can expect some confusion. To be clear, the page quality update is completely unrelated to the core updates and looks at completely different signals.

Read more about Google’s June 2021 update.

While the SEO community may not have noticed the changes in this basic update right away, it seemed that Semrush’s servers noticed it earlier. Semrush showed the update taking off strongly but slowly over three days, as you can see in the chart above.

Other tool vendors also said it was a few days’ slower deployment that was not as large as the previous December 2020 core update.

Other Google changes

My Company phases out short names

According to their updated help documentation, shortened names will no longer be available in Google My Business. Short names made it easy for companies to share URLs of check requests. The feature was initially added in 2019 and is designed to help businesses make their My Business profiles more accessible to potential and existing customers.

Google changes core Web Vitals metrics

Changes have occurred in CWV metrics for the better. Google has adjusted the data associated with Core Web Vitals:

• The threshold for getting „good” results for First Contentful Paint (FCP) has been increased from 1. 0 to 1. 8 seconds.

• Large Contentful Paint (LCP), originally lacked some off-screen elements. Now LCP points to the largest element, even if it is later removed from the DOM page after discovery or if multiple images of the same size qualify.
• To prevent situations such as very long browsing sessions from undermining Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) results, smaller „window” sessions are limited to 5 seconds, marked as ending with a 1-second pause as a boundary to find the worst 5 seconds of the layout change page.

Laboratory versus field data

Lighthouse Lab’s Page Speed Insights results are „calibrated to be representative of the upper percentiles” for worst-case scenarios, such as poor browsers on slow networks. Google intentionally calibrates it so that developers have richer feedback to more easily solve problems that may occur but are less common in the real world. Meanwhile, field data are collected for reports. Site data will point to your audience because it is pulled from browsers with the actual usage of your site.

Why do we care?

Even if we are indifferent to SEO, these factors are extremely important to how our sites and the apps that render pages are experienced by actual users in the field. Google has many case studies that show a positive impact on revenue after implementing performance improvements that provide a more positive user experience.

What if the update affects the site?

Google’s June 2021 basic update puts site owners in a position they’ve never been in before. An update to the core algorithm is currently being implemented, and another is already confirmed for next month. There is no precedent for this, which makes it difficult to recommend specific action until we see what the next month brings.

Instead of reacting to any changes from this month’s update, look ahead and focus on making your site the best it can be before July’s baseline update. Google has advised on what to consider if you have been negatively affected by a core update in the past. There are no specific actions to take to recover, and in fact, a negative ranking may not signal that something is wrong with your pages. However, Google has offered a list of questions to consider if your site is affected by the core update.

Google also wrote a blog post to coincide with this June 2021 update to explain how and why it is making these changes to the search engine. Google said it „receives billions of queries every day from countries around the world in 150 languages. ” It needs to improve to stay competitive and serve its user base.