Google’s May 2020 Core Update Will Roll Out Today!

SEO experts will be excited to know that Google’s Danny Sullivan has just confirmed that a core algorithm update will come out today. Being officially called the May 2020 Core Update, it will hit the internet later today and is part of the frequent updates that Google releases several times every year. Also, as always, Google stays one step ahead of the SEO community when it comes to naming these frequent updates. The company, at least with this update, has gone back to a generic and default Month/Year, naming model.

New Roll Out

While the May 2020 Core Update will roll out today, it will take around one or two weeks for it to become fully operational. The May 2020 Update is Google’s second update of 2020, up till now, with the first one coming out in January. While both the updates have only three months between them, they seem a world apart. The world has undergone some significant upheavals since this January with the Coronavirus pandemic. Also, the release of the new update puts to rest queries regarding whether the COVID-19 would impact Google’s core update launches. 

What do Core Updates do?

Primarily, broad core updates produce noticeable changes in search engine results around the world, in all languages. Most sites will see a drop or gain in rankings as a result of a new core update release. The changes in these rankings reflect how relevant their content is to the changing times. That is to say if the content a site produces has gained importance, the website moves up in rankings. Whereas, if the content has become less important since the last update, it ranks lower than before when the new update rolls out. Also, a unique material that was not present when the old update was in play has an impact on the rankings. All these factors are assessed and reassessed by the core update to decide the new rankings. 

First Update After the Coronavirus 

Also, since this is the first update since COVID-19, there are chances that it might be volatile. The last update came out mid-January 2020, a time when coronavirus was not a major player yet. However, since then, the novel coronavirus has taken over, changing many aspects of how the world works. All these changes have led to a significant shift in the way people use the internet. For instance, Google stated that never before in history has there been so many searches done for a particular topic.

Searches are done regarding news, the impact of COVID-19 on various fields, and also testing schemes. In many ways, it has changed the way people utilize Google as a search engine. A lot of things, such as the virus places offering services, and even products have gained relevance. Similarly, fields that were frequently searched have lost their importance due to COVID-19, such as tourism, entertainment, and travel. Therefore, the May 2020 Update will have to tackle new challenges of gauging relevance and ranking. 

Impact on SEO Job Market

The May 2020 Core Update has the potential to become a very potent tool. In case it fulfills that possibility, it could be good news for the SEO industry. The economic sanctions put in place due to the pandemic has made a lot of companies furlough and fire their staff. In such an environment, a core update inherently raises the value of SEO experts. The volatility of the algorithm change or upgrade usually decides the importance of these SEO services. Hence, a lot of such experts may soon find themselves seeing an increase in demand for their services. Also, it will be interesting to see how many companies increase their SEO budget as a result of this rollout. 

What to do about the May 2020 Update

As mentioned by Google, their guidance policy remains the same as all their core updates before. They always reiterate that websites need not ‘fix’ anything in case their ranking falls. All Google expects the website owners to do is put out great content. However, experts interpret Google’s advice in many different ways. For instance, the SEO industry was set ablaze with speculation regarding an impending update, as far back as April 28th.

Many experts saw a considerable shift and reshuffle in web search rankings, leading them to believe something was coming up. A lot of them had stated that spam websites were climbing the ranking charts, with the ranking going back to normal after a while. All these sudden changes led people to believe that a core update was going to roll out soon enough.

The most recent update in January was put under a lot of scrutinies, as the September 2019 update had let down SEO experts. Dubbed as a weak update, it had failed to create a massive impact as other previous core updates had. It will be interesting to see how the first update following the COVID-19 will affect SEO rankings. Every time Google alters its SEO algorithm, it does so to make the searching experience better for customers. Anyway, it seems like everyone will have to wait two weeks to see how the update impacts their rankings, and then take appropriate steps!