On January 13, Google released its January 2020 Core Update. A "Core Update" is an update to the foundational elements of Google's algorithms—the ones that quantify your site for ranking on the search engine results page (SERP).
A core update is not a tweak here or there to make links weighted higher or site speed more of a factor. Rather, a core update includes broader changes that are, according to the Google Webmaster Central Blog, “designed to ensure that overall, we’re delivering on our mission to present relevant and authoritative content to searchers.”
If you experience Organic traffic gains or losses that can't be linked to any major changes to your site, this may be due to the changes in Google's algorithm favoring your site more or less. If your site is being favored more, you probably have no qualms with the update.
If it’s favored less, however, you’ll likely want to take action to recapture ranking and traffic. Because there are no clear changes at play, but rather a sweeping and generic update, it is difficult to know what to do. Pulling a single lever here and pushing another lever there won’t do much good. Don’t worry though! There are ways to ensure your site is in a better position for this Core Update, and others in the future.
Following are tips on what you can do to ensure that you come out of the update on top:
Don't Panic
If your pages perform worse after a recent update, it doesn't mean that there was anything wrong with you or your site. Google core updates don't target specific pages or types of pages, they change the way the algorithm classifies content overall. If your site drops in rankings, it doesn't necessarily mean that there's any problem that needs fixing. In fact, the SEO industry have been calling core updates “no fix updates,” which is supposed to be funny, I guess!
Focus On Quality
Moving forward, the best thing you can do to make sure your future content performs better after an update is to focus on producing the best content possible. Some factors that Google favors are proper spelling and grammar, expertise, originality, and trustworthiness. Google uses the EAT rule when judging content, so keep it in mind when creating pages:
Expertise
Expertise is a measure of how qualified an author or website is to speak intelligently about a given field. This means choosing authors to create content based on the degrees they may hold or experience they may have in a specific field. Industry awards or other marks of quality conferred by specialists in the field lend credence to the site's claims.
Authority
Authority measures what the world at large thinks of your site. Google considers outside reviews and rankings, such as Google Map Listings, Better Business Bureau, Yelp and others. Google also considers whether or not the content matches the site's other content. For example, a recipe posted on a website dedicated to sports is considered less authoritative than a recipe posted on a website dedicated to food.
Trust
Trust is a measure of how secure and reputable a site is. Having all transactions on a secure connection, as well as being linked to by other sites with high EAT ranking, can increase a website's trust score.
To learn more about SEO and how to build your website for success, feel free to contact us with your questions.