Over the years, Google has released algorithm update after algorithm update to give searchers better results. Each one helps Google filter out spammy, unhelpful sites so the best pages reach the top of its SERPs, and that run of changes is a big part of why Google is still the dominant search engine. Fred is one of those updates: it pushed bad sites down and moved quality sites up.
Launch Date: March 8, 2017
Fred arrived in March 2017 as an unnamed update. Google’s Gary Illyes joked that every unnamed update would be called “Fred” from then on, and SEO professionals kept the name, so Fred is as much a catchall term as a single update. Google does not announce most algorithm changes, so you may not know a Fred update happened unless people in SEO are talking about it online.
Which sites Fred hit
Since you probably won’t hear about an update from Google, the best way to tell whether Fred hit you is to check whether many sites saw the same drop at the same time. If they did, an update is the likely cause. If they didn’t, the problem may be specific to your site. In either case, if your site has the problems below, fix them.
- Too many ads: a site made up mostly of ads (above all badly placed ads, pop-ups or ads for spammy sites) can expect a serious drop in rankings. Visitors come to your site for answers, not more advertising. If ads crowd every page, you will frustrate your visitors, and Fred too.
- Content built for traffic. Many of the sites Fred hit were affiliate sites, or blogs set up to pull in large traffic numbers and then send visitors on to a different site. That doesn’t mean a lot of content, even in blog form, is a problem in itself. Your site does need to be useful, though, and not just a vehicle for showing ads. Sites like the ones Fred hit don’t give people the answers they came for; they exist to rack up page views and earn ad or affiliate revenue for themselves or for other sites.
How the Fred update works
Fred does what every Google quality update does: it finds sites with low-quality content or a poor user experience and pushes them down the SERPs, sometimes out of them entirely. In particular, Fred targeted sites that broke Google’s guidelines with an excessive number of ads, along with sites that knew the tricks of SEO but had little real content behind them. These sites weren’t given a manual penalty. They were downranked, so searchers had little chance of finding them.
How to recover from a Fred drop
Balance ads against content
Too many ads is one of the biggest red flags for Fred, so it is one of the first things to fix. When someone lands on a page of your site, the ads should not overwhelm them. They should never have to scroll past ads to reach your content, so keep ads above the fold to a minimum. Your content is the reason people come to your site in the first place. Ads should sit alongside it and never take over the page.
Don’t duplicate content
Google can easily tell when you use the same content on several pages of your site. Spare yourself the heartache of a ranking drop and avoid duplicate content, however well it may have worked for you before. Put your money into fresh, original content; it keeps your visitors happy and your rankings where you want them.
Build your site’s authority
Fred hits sites that exist mostly to earn money from ads, so go out of your way to show Google your site is not one of them. Do what you can to establish your site as a legitimate source. Link out to trusted, authoritative sites and get similar sites to link back to you. We have written a separate, detailed guide on building your site’s expertise, trust and authority, and following those steps will make your site more credible and help lift your rankings.
Keep your site up to date
SEO never stops being a competition, and Google keeps changing its algorithms to give searchers a better experience. That means you need to audit and edit your site on a regular schedule so your content stays relevant, helpful and current.
Staying clear of Fred
As with most Google updates, Fred is easy to avoid. Write content that solves your visitors’ problems. Build a clean, easy-to-use site with an SEO strategy that brings in traffic. If you follow Google’s guidelines (Google Search Essentials) and the advice above, your rankings should hold.