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Technology is something that keeps on evolving daily and thus, one must keep up with it to stay in business. Google is one such company that keeps evolving and making changes so that it can better itself with time. Thus, Google keeps making changes in its algorithm so that its search results are much more relevant.

Thus, it introduced one such update called Fred. Ever since this update was announced, there has been an uproar among SEO professionals and marketers because of the effect it may have on their business.

Because of Fred, the SEO world has had to make a number of changes so as to cater to this new update from Google. But before getting into what the changes are and how it has had a drastic effect on professionals and their businesses, it is first important to understand about this update and its implications.

So, keep reading on to know what Fred is and get all the information regarding this update!

What is Google Fred?

Google Fred or Fred was given its name by Gary Illyes, who is webmaster analytics. Initially, Gary called the update “Fred” as a joke, but ever since the update became public, the name has stuck by. Many SEO professionals and agencies are under a myth and believe Fred to be a cluster of algorithms and processes.

However, this is not completely true. Fred is basically a catchall of an algorithm, site or update that has not yet been identified by Google for its quality check.

Thus, we can say that it is nothing but a measure of quality control to stop all those who do not adhere to the guidelines that are provided by the webmaster and violate them.

What are the types of websites that Google Fred Affected?

The Fred update was targeted specifically for certain webpages that flouted the guidelines provided by the webmaster. Once Fred was publicized, many people started exploring many websites to understand the impact that Fred had created on SEO professionals and businesses.

Even though the speculations around Fred have not been confirmed, there is a lot of proof that states the theory that Fed basically took place in order to deal with web pages whose primary focus and interest was wealth creation instead of providing the required information and services.

After analyzing various websites to understand the implications of this major update, it has been found out that all major websites that focused on content and advertisement were affected.

But here is the catch - not all of them were hit by this update as the main focus here is prioritizing monetization. Websites that have prioritized monetization, over and above providing a good user experience have been hit hardest by Google’s new update.

Apart from advertising, another factor that was taken into consideration was poor content. If any website did not deliver what they had initially promised, then they have also suffered due to Fred.

Thus, it can be rightly said that any page or website, which was created solely for the purpose of ranking, has too many ads and affiliate links spread through an article were affected drastically.

Moreover, in addition to the points mentioned above, if they had poor content quality and were of no value addition to the website also took a major hit. Thus, we can say that any page that had quality issues was severely affected by Fred.

How to Recover from Google Fred Update?

What needs to be understood here is the fact that Fred is not a single algorithm update. Thus, it is not a single update that specifically targets some common issues only. So, a hit by Fred can be known to you only if some SEO people take note of it and are willing to talk about it.

Google is not going to announce any Fred refreshers. Moreover, they are also not going to talk about what was Fred actually targeted towards and so, naturally, will also not provide any information on how one can recover from it.

Thus, here you are entirely on your own and fill have to figure out something.  Google views all quality issues in light of Fred and commonly, these are considered to be not actionable. However, this is not entirely true and there are some things that you can do to solve this problem.

To help you achieve this, the first thing that you must do is identify the Fred problem. In order to do this, you need to look and check to see if there were various sites that were affected by it. If this is the case, then there might be an update, otherwise not.

Once you have checked and are sure about the fact that your webpage was affected by the Fred update, the next thing you must do is go and check the Google Webmaster Guidelines and read it in detail. You must follow this very carefully and check that your site does not flout any guideline that is mentioned in here.

Aggressive Ad Monetization Targeted by Google Fred Update:

By now, it has become crystal clear that one of the reasons why Google Fred hit many websites and pages was because of the over - usage of advertisements to generate revenue for the website, and less focus on good quality content and good user experience.

Advertisements are one of the major sources of income in any webpage or website, but the use of ads has to be done in a just and wise manner. It increasingly became evident that just to gain a little bit of extra money, many websites were using advertisements as a medium.

In fact, it has so happened that there is hardly any content on the page, but it is filled with ads. In order to curb this kind of behavior, Fred was developed and rolled out.

Thus, from now, it will not be possible for anyone to make money solely on the basis of advertisements. In fact, sites that have used ads have been hit hardest by the new update of Fred, by Google.

After observing many websites and conducting researches, many SEO professionals and analysts have figured out the kind of webpages that are using advertisements for their own monetary benefit. However, there have also been few instances where the clients have complained due to the Fred update, and these clients have stopped using the webpage altogether.

So, if you do not wish to lose out on your existing clients just for few extra bucks, then make sure that you do not indulge in the practice of prioritizing ads over the content on your website.

Google Fred Targets Poor Quality Sites:

As you know, the Fred update was basically a quality update so as to check for quality and to ensure that all webpages adhere to the prescribed guidelines of the Webmaster. So, after much survey and research, it has been found that there were some common characteristics of the sites that were hit by this update.

Some of the poor quality issues that all these websites had in common are given below:

User Experience: User experience basically means the ease with which a visitor on the webpage can navigate through your site and locate what they were looking for. SEO professionals realized that many sites were not concerned about this as they were heavily focusing on wealth generation, thus leading to a poor quality website.

Use of heavy advertisements: This was one of the major concerns that led to the update of Fred. Most SEO people were using ads to generate revenue from their site. As a result, there was a stark shift from providing information to providing ads.

These advertisements were also mostly irrelevant and deceptive in nature, making the website useless. Thus, if a page had too many ads, it was considered to be of poor quality, and was thus, affected by Fred.

Irrelevant and Useless Information: In many cases, what was happening was that the sites were either providing wrong or useless information or was providing information out of their own whims and fancies, without proper professional consultation.

The content that was provided was also not up to the mark. Thus, to highlight these poor pages, the Fred update was scheduled.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Google Fred Algorithm

Google’s Fred Algorithm update has been the talk of the town and rightly so. This one update has drastically impacted the work of SEO professionals and digital marketers. It has also created difficulties for content writers as well. However, not all is bad as it seems.

The Fred update was quite an important one and seeing the declining standards of websites, it came at the right juncture. There are various advantages and disadvantages associated with this update. Some of them are given below:

Advantages of Google Fred

The Google Fred update was rolled out keeping in mind the betterment of everyone including the SEO professionals, content marketers as well as the viewers and users of a webpage.

The main advantage here is for the viewers, who had become the repetitive victim to a host of bad webpages, advertisements and misleading information. Most of the time a user went to a website as it appealed to them and seemed like it would solve their problems, only later to find out that it was nothing but a façade of ads and useless information.

Moreover, Fred will be extremely beneficial to the actually genuine and good pages that provide good quality information and enriched content to its users as their visibility, viewership and rankings will increase.

Disadvantages of Google Fred

The main disadvantages of the Fred update has been for those websites and people who were indulged in malpractices and were not adhering to the Webmaster’s guidelines. In such cases, these webpages have suffered a lot as there has been a drastic drop in the rankings. But, if you have adhered to the rules and done nothing wrong, then there is no need for you to worry.

Conclusion:

Since technology keeps on updating, we also need to update ourselves with time keeping in mind the guidelines that have been provided. Just like Fred, there will be numerous upcoming updates in the near future.

So, if you do not want to be a victim of such updates, it is utmost mandatory to follow the rules. Moreover, if you wish to not incur any fines and penalties, and stay in the business, then you need to take these things into consideration.

Thus, to stay ahead of others, you need to be fair and original. You need to keep in mind the users and customers, and then create content for them according to their very needs. Keep the viewer in mind first and then follow the steps that you need to undertake. This will ensure the smooth functioning of your business and you will not have to bother about any such updates in the future.