Google has announced to start its second core update of the algorithm on 4th May 2020. After two weeks on 18th May 2020, Google announced to complete the rollout and implement the updates on search engine results.
Google’s algorithm update is not astonishing because Google announces many updates every year. Most of the changes are minor and not crucial for rankings; that’s why webmasters don’t have to know about them.
But this core update is much important because it could be a reason for massive fluctuations in the search engine results.
Google introduces this core update in the mid of pandemic Covid-19, and now it is assumed that this update comes with something important that relates to Covid-19. There could be a change in the search behavior of search engine users due to Covid-19.
Who Are Affected With May Core Update?
During the analysis, we notice that the sites that are not following the core web vitals are more affected by this update. The strong brands are less affected while the soft brands lose their rankings in the SERPs.
This core update hits many industries/niche massively. The top niches include travel, real estate, health, pets & animals, and people & society. But it doesn’t mean that this core update target specific industries; instead, it is a significant change that implements on all languages and industries from around the world.
The news industry remains on the top if we talk about the winners of this core update.
Targeted Factors in Core May 2020 Update
However, this update revolves around the E-A-T, along with a few other factors. Therefore, today, we will discuss all these factors thoroughly.
1. E-A-T Standard
E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Google uses this standard for the assessment of websites for ranking purposes and especially for the YMYL niche (Your Money, Your Life).
- Expertise
Expertise refers to the experience of a particular topic published on the website. Usually, website owners hire content writers that collect and gather information on a specific topic for posting on the website.
No doubt, that topic provides comprehensive, useful, and accurate information. But it never competes with the information provided by a specialist.
For example, an article wrote by a physician about any disease always provide valuable information as compared to a professional content writer. Because physicians have practical experience, and they can mention many examples from their practical experience.
Also, it is easy for physicians to discuss the causes, symptoms, and treatment of disease and provide accurate information.
In this core update, sites that provide expert opinions gained top rankings. However, many detailed articles are available over the internet about that topic.
Therefore, In core update it is recommended by Google to keep in mind the following things while creating the content for every page.
- Content must provide clear information about the topic
- Mention source of information clearly
- Provide evidence of expert involvement
- A little description about Author background
- Content must be from factual errors
- Authoritativeness
It is the most crucial thing in E-A-T because it let the search engine know about your presence on authoritative websites. Google is more curious about the authority links that your website has, and it keeps a keen view of it.
In core update, Google denies the importance of links that you can get quickly for your website. For example, Google can easily judge which link you can gain by providing content, or by paying for the link or exchange the link with the website.
Therefore, focus on the authority link where people mention you and recommend you will give you a good vote.
Mentioning yourself on different forums also provide a positive sign for your authority. However, this method is not suitable for every business. But if you ignore your presence on platforms and everyone mentions your competitors, then your competitor will take the lead in rankings.
- Trustworthiness
Trustworthiness is essential for top rankings in the SERPs because it directly relates to the reviews of users/customers. This factor is primarily associated with businesses that operate over the internet.
In case if your brand has a bunch of negative reviews, it harms the SERPs ranking on Google, and you will lose your rankings.
Therefore, it is essential to follow the complaints that users or customers published on your site and try to clear them as early as possible. Negative comments also harm your brand because a lot of people talk about it.
Google provides clear guidelines about this matter and takes negative comments as a sign of low-quality services or products.
Furthermore, try to avail positive reviews on different social media platforms because it helps to build the trust of the brand over the internet.
The following are some tips that you can practice to increase the trust of your brand/business over the internet.
- Mention a straightforward way of contact with company or website owners
- Mention physical location of the website or office from where you control all the matters
- Publish the business terms & condition about your products or services
- Improve the security of your website and install the SSL certificate on your domain. It assures the users as well as search engines that no one will interrupt the data available on your site
- Discuss the privacy policy about dealing with customers and other related information
- Provide clear and accurate specifications of products on the website along with safety instructions
- If your website is about sharing knowledge with users try to publish author biography and link if with the external relevant sources (if possible)
- After that, you have no need to afraid of the core update.
2. Core Web Vitals
In May, Google also released an official statement about the Core Web Vitals, which is a bunch of different matrices that are important for rankings. However, these matrices are not new to webmasters, and SEO experts already practice all these factors as a part of SEO.
These factors include the optimization of the website for both mobile and desktop users in terms of speed, user index, and responsiveness, etc. Google mentioned that interactivity, page loading speed, and content structure are the essential elements of Web Vitals in 2020.
Additionally, Google introduces a separate report in the search console that webmasters can use for checking the performance of the website as per web vitals. Now, it is easy for the webmasters to check the performance instead of paying for SEO tools or do it manually.
3. Search Intent
Google always prioritizes the websites that provide high-quality content that is relevant, easy to read and fulfill the requirements of users. Also, Google-like the websites that provide comprehensive information and upload long articles.
For attaining the top rankings, marketers started to upload lengthy content. Sometimes lengthy contents provide additional information that is beyond the requirements of readers for gaining preference for competitors.
The Google search bot also likes it, and it is evident that many experts gain top rankings by using this technique.
But an core update of May 2020, Google modifies the standards of accessing the quality of content. Instead of focusing on the long and well-structured content, Google starts focusing on the user intent in the search results. Now, websites that provide the relevant information as per the user intent can get top rankings.
Google split the search works into two parts:
- Meaning Of Query
In this part, Google bot establishes the information that you require by looking behind the intent of the query. It collects information about what type of information searcher needs, i.e., reviews, general information, images, news, or any other.
After collecting the required information, it refines the results for providing in the SERPs. It provides the results that are the most relevant to the query.
However, it is not easy to find the intent behind the search, but it helps to refine the search results. Therefore, Google mentions it clearly in core update to use the keywords in the content that represent the intent of users.
- Webpage Relevancy
In the past, if a keyword matches in the heading/content, then the search engine considers the content as relevant and useful.
But now Google combines this process with other possible factors behind the search intent of a searcher. It matches the keywords with other possible signals with the help of a machine learning system and provides more accurate results.
4. Improve The Importance Of No-Follow Links
In recent years, SEO experts create no-follow backlinks to balance the level of do-follow and no-follow backlinks. They are not useful for passing the juice links to a website as well as useless for increasing domain authority.
In this core update, Google confirms the rollout March 2020 that no-follow links are somehow useful now, and bots take it as hints. It means search engines wants to remove the ignorance of no-follow links, and these are useful now to understand the purpose of the website.
Conclusion
core update of May 2020 revolves around the four factors mentioned above, and the implementation of this update results in a massive fluctuation in rankings in the SERP.
However, the focus remains on the content quality, especially for the websites that are related to the YMYL niche.
Hopefully, the above discussions clear a lot of confusion and help you to overcome the problems you had faced due to this core update.
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