The search giant’s past algorithmic updates have taken the names of animals (Panda, Penguin etc). So when we heard that Google’s wizardry had moved on from an entire species to the personality of a named individual, we were intrigued!

Google’s search expert Gary Illyes jokingly referred to the latest Google algorithm update as “Fred” and the name stuck. An odd choice of name you might think, but is there more to the name than meets the eye? Keeping in mind the character Freddy from A Nightmare on Elm Street, what could this latest update mean for the travel sector?

To set the scene, Google changes its search algorithm around 500 times every year. While most of these changes are minor, Google occasionally rolls out a major update which affects search results in significant ways. And the Fred update seems to be no exception. The key point here though is that Fred is not a single update. It is actually a series of four updates, which were slowly released over a four-week period in March and April 2017.

Heavy hitter
There has been a lot of online chatter from webmasters who have already been bashed on the head by Fred. The reported results have been pretty staggering. All affected sites suffered major traffic losses as a consequence of dramatically lowered rankings in Google search results. Most of the affected sites have seen a decline in organic traffic of between 50% and 90%. It seems Fred is a pretty heavy hitter!

The vast majority of affected sites seem to follow a common theme, however. Most affected sites seem to be content sites that focus primarily on click revenue and not the “user experience”. So there is nothing really new here, you might think. Perhaps Google is just stepping up its commitment to quality content, which is designed to give the best user experience?

The key aspect though is that most – but not all – of the affected sites have lots of adverts and/or affiliate links sprinkled throughout the articles. Quite often, the adverts or links don’t closely correlate to the content of the page. Many of the most severely hit sites seem not to focus on one type of product.

They seem to list content on an array of topics that are not adding much value over and above what leading information sites in the industry have already covered. Consequently, travel companies that have active affiliate marketing networks may see a sharp decline in referred website traffic if the sites which are focused on generating affiliate income get hit by a penalty. As a result, referred traffic from affiliate sites may see a sharp decline.

Similarly, the level of affiliate income payments from the travel provider to the affiliate websites will also drop. If affiliate-referred traffic makes up a significant percentage of your overall traffic and converts well, ensure your affiliate partners tighten up their content so that it doesn’t fall into the categories described above. Remind your affiliate partners to create quality content that engages audiences and tell them to ensure that the page content is relevant to the link pointing at your own site.

But there is another far-reaching question which remains unanswered among SEO consultants. What if the links (affiliate or otherwise) on any penalised affiliate sites pass on risk to your own site? Could the fact that your site is linked to a penalised site potentially affect your own natural or organic website traffic? While the risks may be lessened, prudent website owners will take a renewed interest in their link profiles to ensure the links which point at their site fall into the “quality” category.

It’s more important than ever to monitor new links that pop up every month (without your knowledge) to make sure you are not being compromised. If you’re worried about your SEO footprint, it is a good idea to contact your SEO company or consultant to make sure that you are protected. Elm Street is certainly not a travel destination that many travel companies will want to be associated with. 

Andrew Hayward is co-founder of the travel-focused online marketing company Onvigil