Every year, Google rolls out roughly around 1000 algorithm updates to it's search algorithm.
While some of these updates go unnoticed, there are others which are larger than your average tweak and have been known to websites on a larger scale - These are known as "Core updates".
Unlike many of the smaller updates made by google, broad core algorithm updates generally cause more fluctuations in search engine results pages (SERP's).
for this reason, we recommend webmasters be aware of what these updates actually mean, how it can affect your websites online performance and what can be done should you find that your site has been impacted by the update.
What is a Google broad core algorithm update?
Generally speaking, core updates are a larger change made to Google's search algorithm on the way the search giant ranks websites based on it's many ranking signals.
Core updates therefore differ from daily updates in many ways as they have larger impact:
- They are more likely to cause larger fluctuations in search rankings across the many industry niches and countries.
- These updates are more likely to be confirmed by Google themselves.
- More websites will notice rankings changes
- websites impacted by core updates will sometimes find it harder to come out of rank changes caused by the update.
- Focus more on expertise, authority and trustworthiness (E.A.T).
Previous examples of these updates are the Google Penguin , which looks at the quality of the links. Another one is the Google Panda which looks at the quality of the websites content. More recently, another update was rolled out and it was concerned with a websites page speed, referred to as the Google Page Speed update.
The latest Google Update
The latest update was confirmed by Google on their Google Search Liaison Twitter account (@searchliaison) on the 14th of January 2020. The general chatter amongst marketing professionals is that this is not an update that focuses on one element of your website such as Page Speeds or Content but is a more generalised update.
This current broad core Google algorithm has no name and is therefore simply called 'January 2020 Core Update'. It is said to impact all SERP's on a world wide scale and it appears Australia is one of them.
*Source : SEMRush
Google's advice on this particular update is similar to that of other major updates : namely follow their documentation and guidelines on core updates. This can all be found on their Webmaster Central Blog.
Our conclusion
With Google updates (especially core updates) it is important analyse your rankings, web traffic and identify whether or not any dips / spikes or changes to your traffic and rankings can be attributed to the changes in Google's algorithm.
Generally, it can take about 2 weeks for an algorithm update to "kick in" and have an impact, so keep that in mind.
Should you find your traffic / rankings dropping and want more assistance, get in touch with our friendly team.
