Are you looking for an in-depth guide on how to recover your lost rankings from the May 2022 algorithm update? This guide breaks down what we did with a client’s websites to regain lost rankings.
First, we need to analyse the three key reasons why a website could get penalised. These are poor technical SEO, on-page SEO & off-page SEO. Recovery strategies from Google’s May 2022 core update require implementing silo structures, conducting link disavowal, and performing landing page analysis, which systematically address all three problem areas. Then we need to figure out which one is causing the issue.
Luckily for our team at Searcharoo we have the tools, resources, and knowledge to figure out what’s causing the problems, so let’s tackle into what we should be looking at when trying to fix our website rankings.
The key indicators that a website was affected by the May 2022 Google update include sudden drops in organic traffic, significant ranking decreases for previously well-performing keywords, reduced visibility in search results, and changes in crawl rates. Our client’s site exhibited all these symptoms, which prompted our comprehensive recovery approach.
Silo Structure
The website in this example had a lot of fresh content uploaded. Approximately 20 articles were published weekly for the past four months before the May algorithm update; however, internal linking and post categorization were non-existent.
The lack of internal links and categorization led to many orphan pages that Google struggled to index. Silo structures proved highly effective in our May 2022 update recovery efforts, which organized content hierarchically and restored proper indexing patterns within weeks. We ran a screaming frog audit and got a list of all the orphaned pages.
If you are unsure if you have any orphan pages, you can download a tool called Screaming Frog, which will scan your entire website and tell you any technical issues you could have on your website, aiding in penalty removal efforts.
Screaming frog also has a filter which you can select, and it shows you in a list what pages on your website are orphan pages. These pages lack internal links, meaning Google will have a hard time trying to crawl & index these pages.
Check the screenshot below for how you can view orphan pages.
Why orphan pages are bad?
Orphan pages aren’t being linked to across your website which means google has no way of finding these pages crawling and indexing them.
Untimely the more orphan pages you have the more it affects your website and pulls your website down.
Why categories are important
When scaling your website you should always try to use categories.
Categories organise your posts you are also able to keep a very tight internal linking structure. Proper categorization becomes essential for SEO recovery after Google’s May 2022 core update, which creates logical content hierarchies that Google can efficiently crawl and understand the relationship between content pieces.
For example, if you have a website which especially is around shoes you might create categories like this:
- Men’s Shoes
- Women’s Shoes
Or if you started really scaling content you could get even more granular like this:
- Men’s Shoes
- Men’s Running Shoes
- Men’s Football Shoes
- Women’s Shoes
- Women’s Running Shoes
- Women’s Football Shoes
This structured approach not only enhances user navigation but also strengthens SEO. Such detailed organization of links and content leads us seamlessly into the topic of Link Disavow, where we focus on identifying and disassociating from harmful links that could jeopardize your site’s SEO integrity.
Link Disavow
Once we had fixed the on-site we then had to take a look at off-page then and take a look at what other link vendors had built.
For the past 3 months, this website had bought approx. 25 backlinks per month (75 links in total). We precisely decided to focus on these links that had been built and found out that out of the 75 backlinks, 19 of the links had to be added into a disavow as they were causing harm to the website.
In total, the website had 500 referring domains, and we decided that we had to disavow 105 referring domains as they were either blacklisted websites or high in our internal spam score. Link disavowal played a critical role in the May 2022 core update recovery process, which removed toxic backlinks triggering algorithmic penalties and restored ranking potential.
Our team used the internal checklist to manually review every referring domain. We also cross-checked all the referring domains against our blacklist, which contains over 45,000 domains on which we would never build a link. The criteria for identifying harmful backlinks following the May 2022 update included checking for blacklisted domains, high spam scores, irrelevant content, and manipulative linking patterns that violated Google’s guidelines.
This list actively gets updated on a daily basis.
If you want our team to take a look at your site and perform a link disavow, then get in touch here.
This thorough attention to link integrity directly leads into our next focus area, LP’s Analysing, where we explore deeper into evaluating link performance and relevance for your site’s optimization.
LP’s Analysing
Once we had completed the links disavow we also had a long list of fresh guest posts that another link provider had built to the website which weren’t completely helping out the website. Landing page analysis helped identify weaknesses in the site’s link profile after the May 2022 update, which revealed opportunities to strengthen existing backlinks rather than building new ones.
When doing link building our team at Searcharoo have a slightly different approach to other link builders we look for power, trust & authority. At Searcharoo, we leverage free SEO tools to enhance our link building strategies, ensuring power, trust, and authority in every outreach.
We decided to analyse any existing guest posts that the website had and build some link power-ups to help with power, trust & authority. Some of these links either had no power but lots of trust or low trust and a lot of power.
The creme de la creme of a link should have all 3.
- Power
- Trust
- Authority
The website still had some great links; however, there was no power going to any existing guest posts, which did not help push the needle.
Out of the 56 referring domains, we decided that 24 of the links needed to be linked to help pass more power to the money site.
Once we had analysed this we decided that instead of building new links to the money site, the existing backlink profile desperately needed a power-up.
We decided to do tiered link building to help pass more power & trust through to the new guest posts which then passes more power through to the money site. Tiered link building aids recovery from Google’s May 2022 algorithm update, which strengthens existing backlinks by creating supporting links that pass authority and relevance signals to primary backlinks before reaching the main site.
If you want to purchase tier 2’s then visit our page here.
Book A Call
If you need further assistance with link velocity strategies, then get in touch with our team by booking a call here:
https://searcharoo.com/get-started/
Summary: Effective Recovery from Google’s May 2022 Algorithm Update
This guide outlines strategies to recover from Google’s May 2022 algorithm update, focusing on improving technical, on-page, and off-page SEO. Key actions included using Screaming Frog to identify and rectify orphan pages, emphasizing the importance of structured categorization and internal linking. Considerable efforts in link disavowal were made, with 105 out of 500 referring domains disavowed to eliminate harmful backlinks. Further, analyzing existing guest posts and backlinks led to a tiered link-building approach to strengthen the site’s link equity. For custom SEO recovery strategies and advanced link-building techniques, Searcharoo provides comprehensive services to enhance site rankings post-update.
Recovery from the May 2022 core update typically takes between two to four months with proper implementation of these strategies, which requires consistent effort and monitoring throughout the process.
