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Home / Industry News / Google Confirms May 2020 Core Update Rolling out Today

Google Confirms May 2020 Core Update Rolling out Today

May 4, 2020 By John E Lincoln

Today, Google confirmed that it’s rolling out a new core algorithm update. It’s unimaginatively called the “May 2020 Core Update.”

May 2020 Core Update

How will the May 2020 Core Update Affect Your Website?

This gives new meaning to the phrase: “May the Fourth Be With You.”

You can find an update on how the Google May 2020 update is affecting different industries so far, here.

Photo by Will Porada on Unsplash

Google won’t say. But I’m certain you’ll soon find out.

Google’s Danny Sullivan tweeted about the update earlier today. He also said that the company’s guidance remains the same as it has in the past.

That is to say, there’s absolutely no action you need to take in response to the update.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the party line during these types of updates, it’s that you don’t need to worry about the algorithm change. Just get on with life as you normally would.

May 2020 Core Update

Here’s what Google says about periodic algorithm changes:

Several times a year, we make significant, broad changes to our search algorithms and systems. We refer to these as “core updates.” They’re designed to ensure that overall, we’re delivering on our mission to present relevant and authoritative content to searchers. These core updates may also affect Google Discover.

However, just because Google says that you don’t need to take any action in response to the May 2020 Core Update, that doesn’t mean that nothing will happen to your rankings.

This might be your first time attending a Google dance.

Your keywords will likely bounce around from one spot to another while the algorithm works its way through the system. Search terms that were landing you top spots in the search engine results pages (SERPs) in the past might put you on Page 3 nowadays.

What Can You do to Hold your Rankings in the May 2020 Core Update?

Again, nothing. Google says these kinds of rating gyrations are perfectly normal.

Some people win by jumping to the top. Others lose by moving from the first page of the search results to the second.

Google says there’s nothing necessarily “wrong” with pages that lose rank. They aren’t subject to manual actions and they haven’t necessarily violated the Google webmaster guidelines.

It’s just that Google’s new algorithm has determined that some pages are more suitable for certain keywords than yours. That’s all.

Here’s some more insight from Google with a relevant analogy:

One way to think of how a core update operates is to imagine you made a list of the top 100 movies in 2015. A few years later in 2019, you refresh the list. It’s going to naturally change. Some new and wonderful movies that never existed before will now be candidates for inclusion. You might also reassess some films and realize they deserved a higher place on the list than they had before.

Google offers lots of general advice on providing content that ranks well. But it all comes down to two words: user experience.

Does the content you’re writing offer quality advice/research/guidance on the keyword you’ve selected? If so, then it should rank well.

Here’s another question: does the content you’re writing offer better advice/research/guidance than what your competitors are providing on their websites?

If not, then you know why you dropped.

So if you want to get to the point where you don’t have to worry about doing the Google dance every time there’s a core algorithm update, make sure that you’re producing the kind of content that resonates well with your target audience.

Take a look at the dwell time metric on your web pages. If you find that people are bouncing away after only a few seconds, that’s a sure sign that your content isn’t worth reading.

Don’t be surprised if you lose rank in that case.

In the meantime, pay attention to your rankings over the next few weeks. Once the dance is over, look at where your keywords have “landed.”

That’s probably where they’ll stay for quite some time.

 

About John E Lincoln

John Lincoln (MBA) is CEO of Ignite Visibility (a 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 Inc. 5000 company) a highly sought-after digital marketing strategist, industry speaker and author of two books, "The Forecaster Method" and "Digital Influencer." Over the course of his career, Lincoln has worked with over 1,000 online businesses ranging from small startups to amazing clients such as Office Depot, Tony Robbins, Morgan Stanley, Fox, USA Today, COX and The Knot World Wide. John Lincoln is the editor of the Ignite Visibility blog. While he is a contributor, he does not write all of the articles and in many cases he is supported to ensure timely content.

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About The Editor

John E Lincoln, CEO

John Lincoln is CEO of Ignite Visibility, one of the top digital marketing agencies in the nation and a 6x Inc. 5,000 company. Lincoln is consistently named one of the top marketing experts in the industry. He has been recipient of the Search Engine Land "Search Marketer of the Year" award, named the #1 SEO consultant in the USA by Clutch.co, most admired CEO and 40 under 40. Lincoln has written two books (The Forecaster Method and Digital Influencer) and made two movies (SEO: The Movie and Social Media Marketing: The Movie) on digital marketing. He is a digital marketing strategy adviser to some of the biggest names in business. John Lincoln is the editor of the Ignite Visibility blog. While he is a major contributor, he does not write all of the articles.

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