Google’s Fred Algorithm Update – 5 Steps to Take Now!

Google is always tight-lipped about the changes they make to their algorithm, however, the change on March 7th/8th was large enough for many website owners and digital marketing firms to notice substantial changes in traffic and rankings. This new algorithm update, simply known as “Fred”, is believed to primarily target websites with low-quality content and backlinks. Often, these two factors occur simultaneously and on websites that have utilized SEO companies to quickly build low-quality content and backlinks.

Google has confirmed the Fred algorithm update, but they were weary of giving too much information about it. The only clue given to website owners was that Fred targeted websites that were not abiding by the webmaster guidelines. Based on our research here at StatCounter, we have determined that sites with low-quality content and unnatural backlinks, purely meant to drive revenue have been the most hurt by this update.

Here are five things you can do right now to see if you were affected and start recovering any lost rankings and traffic

1) Look at your analytics. Did you see a drop in the traffic or the number of keywords you were ranking for between March 5th and the 20th. If no you are probably fine if you did then read on.

2) See if you can categorize your content into 2 buckets – high quality and updated vs low quality and old.

3) Match your lost keywords, based on traffic volume and previous rankings, with any low-quality content pages.

4) Improve your content quality immediately. Start by adding to, rewriting, and making your low quality pages better. Start with the pages that were driving the most traffic pre-Fred (see number 3).

5) Use a backlink spam tool or checker and to find and remove any questionable backlinks. Also, ensure that your remaining “good” backlinks appear natural and in reasonable ratios. For instance, no-follow to follow ratios, anchor text similarities, etc. are all things that Google takes into account when determining the value of your backlinks.

 

Fred Algorithm Update Changes and Concerns

The update has now been around long enough for us to start piecing together the puzzle. The first factor is content. If your site’s rankings are heavily dependent on multiple long-tail keywords and the content that matches those keywords was written before 2014, you may have been affected. Basically, if Fred sees your content as irrelevant, outdated, or too ad-heavy, you may see some rankings drop.

The second factor is low-quality backlinks. If you’ve ever paid for generic or easy to spot “artificial” backlinks, Fred may have just penalized you. Websites with a lot of old content likely also have a lot of old backlinks. Since low backlinks and low quality content often go hand in hand, this correlation makes it difficult to determine which, if not both factors is driving changes in rankings.

Avoiding the Fred Penalty

This isn’t the first algorithm update Google has rolled out to encourage high quality content, and it likely won’t be the last. The best way to avoid and or recover from a Fred penalty is to focus on creating high-quality, in-depth, and authoritative content on your site. If your website has a lot of old content you will want to go back through and optimize these pages to meet their quality standards. Here is a link to Google’s most recent quality guideline: https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en//insidesearch/howsearchworks/assets/searchqualityevaluatorguidelines.pdf

Also, since Google said this update targeted websites that were not following the webmaster guidelines, you may want to review these as well to ensure you accidently aren’t practicing any black hat or out of date SEO techniques. For the rest of 2017, focus on creating quality content for your website rather than generating large amounts of cheap and quickly written content.

Track Your Traffic with StatCounter

StatCounter offers free website analytics to millions of websites around the world. We also track changes in search engines and keep our members informed with the latest news. If you’d like to start using StatCounter to see how changes like Fred affect your website click here to sign-up.

258 Comments

  1. Great article been searching around about Fred penalty recovery

  2. Thank you for sharing the information with us. Please guys check my site I applied for Adsense but it’s 3days now no reply from Google. www.appnoids.tk

  3. DO not worry for old blogs which are loosing the traffic, we can use them as infographic presentation and we can do our publishing. It can make your content more viral if the content is good.

    Regards
    http://www.benergdigimark.com/

  4. Will this be of any benefit to exact searches? For example: http://www.scooterdealers.com

  5. thanks ….but my site is not affected by fred algo…..as i am not the part of driving fake trafffic…
    http://redmovies.me/

  6. Thanks for sharing these tips but I want to ask how to remove spam backlinks?

  7. I’ve been working on a content audit. I really believe just continuing to follow best practices will be the best way to stay on top of these updates.

  8. I’ve noticed a drop on some client sites, but my own has managed to outlive this Google update and I’ve rehabilitated the effected client sites. Onwards and upwards!

  9. i did not know this update before this blog. Thanks admin you have shared very good update i learnt new one.

  10. I have removed a lot of affiliate links after finding out that Fred did not like some my websites.
    Next to that I added a lot of extra content. Articles with 300 words just don’t work anymore.
    It’s all about the visitor now. Write for people, not Google.

  11. i lost traffic and ranking my website is – http://www.dheersoftwaresolutions.com/

  12. Good insights there. Seems to me like just another attack on “small business”. It’s fair enough if people are using spammy links, but it’s these panda-type updates that are just so frustrating. All that time spent gone to waste when they roll out the next daft animal update. It’s ok for big brands who have the capital to pay for paid traffic and media links. 🙁

  13. You need to analyze it well to understand google updates. I think it’s an update that will come in the name of penalizing the wrong seo work and continuing. Thank you for the information

  14. Thanks for the advice. On my end, I haven’t noticed any significant loss in traffic. Just the normal up and down movements.

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