Google has announced a New Broad Core Update in May 2022

What are core updates?

Google rolls out core updates regularly to improve the Google Search and make it better suited for the changing nature of the web. These changes might bring some changes to the sites’ performance, but it is not yet specific as to what changes.

But in any case, this update is targeted to affect certain websites than penalize some others positively. This update will impact all the websites in all the regions.

Back To Top

Testing of this core update before rollout

The core update rumours have been going on since the 16th of May, and the official announcement was only released 12 hours before the official core update. John Muelle from Google was the one who announced this update, mentioning that he was not given any specific details about the update. However, considering that Google has always worked to improve the relevancy of the search results, it is imminent that the latest update may either negatively or positively affect the sites.

But it is probably safe to conclude that from the time rumours came out till the time of an actual update, Google has been testing the core update.

Back To Top

How are people reacting to this update?

Many website owners have taken to Twitter to talk about the latest core updates. Some are helping the other website owners to at least wait for 2 weeks before they consider the changes in their websites. In contrast, some others are panicking over their lost keywords rankings.

Many others are being patient as it is not yet the first complete week of the rollout.

Back To Top

How is it affecting the websites already?

Lost keywords: Many websites are losing high ranking keywords. Many sites like Amazon, Quora, or even AI-generated are gaining from the secondary keywords. While the position of the keyword in some sites remained.

Some website owners claim that the effect of this core update is ridiculous because it is rewarding some sites with content that has no actual reference, similar content, or sometimes even spun content.

Traffic Drop: Some sites are hit by significant traffic drops. An owner mentions that their site’s traffic came down to 80k from 160k in the latest two core updates. The latest one is hitting their traffic with a 75% drop. According to many owners, websites with low-quality content are not as affected or doing better than the websites that have worked for years to build a website with quality content.

Many believe that SaaS websites are not as affected by this update, and they are still blooming even with low-quality content.

Volatility and regaining traffic: Many websites are experiencing fluctuations in their traffic and ranking. While some are losing traffic and their rankings, they are always regaining some part of their lost traffic and starting to rank again. Although, websites like Reddit, YouTube, eBay, and Amazon have increasing steady traffic and rankings.

Back To Top

Major Google Core updates so far

Panda

Google rolled out the Panda update back in 2011, when the websites with duplicate, plagiarized, or stuffed keywords were affected. This update worked on scoring the websites and used the scores to rank the websites. While the effects of the Panda update were not as strict initially, it became a core algorithm in 2016.

If you have a website, it is essential to keep running site checks for duplicate content or keyword stuffing. Many free or paid tools will help you keep your website from penalties.

Penguin

The Penguin update rolled out a year after the Panda rollout. It targeted the websites with spammy and poor links – irrelevant or links with poor anchor text. As a result, many websites got de-ranked, and many websites with low effort link building were affected.

Running regular audits and working on the quality link building is a good strategy to keep yourself safe from the Penguin de-ranking of your website. Many tools will help you look for risky links, and if you find links over 50% of the risk, it is time to fix them before your site gets de-ranked.

Mobile

Google’s one of the significant core updates, Mobile, was rolled out in 2015, and it hit websites that don’t have a mobile-friendly responsive website.

It is not surprising that many users who access websites on Google use mobile. With the improvement of mobile phones or smartphones, nobody needs to sit in front of a PC all day to surf a website. And a website that cannot be appropriately operated from a mobile device or from a small screen properly was not preferred for ranking in this update. There were no penalties involved. Mostly just, other sites with mobile responsiveness were given preference.

If you have a website, make sure you optimize it for the mobile screens. This includes keeping your website light enough to perform faster, even with mobile data. You can check your website’s responsiveness in Content Analysis > Page Audit.

Medic

This update affects the websites with weak EAT signals. It is prevalent in medical websites not to forget law or education-related websites. These types of websites are responsible for offering information to users that can be life-altering. This core update worked on some EAT (expertise, authority, trust) signals. While many are not sure about recovery strategies, it is highly recommended by SEO professionals that websites hire niche experts for writing their content. This will help the brands in the long run as the niche experts will make sure to offer genuine information and will know where and when to refrain from information that could affect their lives negatively.

Back To Top

Is SEO dying?

Many website owners are upset over the new rollout talking about how SEO is dying. But SEO is very much alive. What is dying or getting replaced is the old SEO tactics. While many old SEO tactics are failing and not getting replaced by another, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is dying.

You can always try the new algorithm tactics and ditch the old ones and keep saving your site from penalties.

Back To Top