Hey SEO peeps, BIG NEWS this week!

Google has finally completed rolling out the Google May 2020 Core Update this Monday on May 18th, 2020 which makes it a full two-week roll out since May 4th, 2020. 

Here’re the Tweets from Google on when it first started rolling out and when it finished.

The impact of the changes was noticeable in various tracking tools.  SEMRush noticed huge volatility from May 5th to 7th. 

The same was noticed by Mozcast on the first two days of the update then it began to slow. 

But what do we know about this May Core Update? 

As usual, Google has not revealed precise information about what changed in the search engine algorithm or which industries or topics are the special focus of the Google update. 

Moreover, as this algorithm update coincides with the changing search behavior resulted from the pandemic, it’s hard to separate the effects. 

As a whole, there’s a significant change in the SERPs that highlights social media results, particularly Pinterest. 

If there’s anything we can take away from this is to leverage on social media to direct the traffic back to our own website. 

Here’s our comprehensive guide to social media marketing. 

Advice from Google: 

For websites affected by the May Algorithm update, here’s a list by Google that webmasters should answer by:

Content and Quality: Does the website offer original, valuable content? Are meta titles and descriptions appealing and designed to match the content? Would you as a webmaster share this content with friends? 

Expertise: Is the content trustworthy? Does the page contain errors? As a webmaster coming to the site via Google, would you trust it yourself?

Presentation & Production: Does the content look well researched and produced or does it seem more like mass production? Are there too many ads? Does the site load appealingly on all devices?

Competitive Comparison: Does the website offer added value compared to other competitors? Does the content meet the expectations of the users? 

On a related note, Search Engine Roundtable has released an archive for Google Algorithm updates dating back as far as December 2004. 

Click here to show it some love and support. 

20/5/2020 – New Reports for Guided Recipes on Assistant in Google Search Console

Google Search Console has added support for guided recipes.

And for those who are unfamiliar, “guided recipes” are step-by-step instructions on how to complete a recipe available in Google Search and Google Assitant as shown below:

Now there is a new enhancement report for guided recipes in Google Search Console and the Rich Results test is also supporting this format. 

If you open up your Search Console, you will be able to view a Rich Result status enhancement report with the errors, warnings, and fully valid pages found among your site’s recipes.

It also includes a checkbox to show trends on search impressions, “which can help in understanding the impact of your rich results appearances,” 

On top of that, it can also help you to not only find an issue but also to fix those issues. Users can then use report to notify Google that your page has changed and should be recrawled. 

20/5/2020 – Google is Working on Something Related to Nofollow Link Change

We know that Google has made a change to the nofollow link policy, that starting on March 1, 2020, Google can look at a nofollow link attribute as a hint and not as a directive. 

Just to be clear, Google said in September, they can use it as a hint for ranking and in March as a hint for crawling and indexing. 

But since then, it seems Google did not make any real change to search since the change – but a change is indeed coming.

Lighthouse 6.0 is out! What’s new

Lighthouse 6.0 is out! The new version introduces new metrics to track Core Web Vitals as introduced last week, 

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – perceived loading experience
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – a measurement of visual stability
• Total Blocking Time (TBT) – load responsiveness

…an updated performance score and multiple new audits. Click here to see the full updates.

Currently, Lighthouse 6.0 is available immediately on npm and in Chrome Canary. Other Google services that leverage Lighthouse will get the update by the end of the month. It will land in Chrome Stable in Chrome 84 (mid-July).

20/5/2020 – Bing “Yes or No” Questions & Expands Intelligent Answers Globally

Bing announced that it has deployed large neural network models that allow it to better understand complex and ambiguous concept. 

The search engine said it synthesize across sources to generate an unambiguous answer to the question. 

Generally, Bing is now able to answer yes or no questions, and expand its intelligent answer globally. Here’s Bing’s answer to the question if chocolates is good for dogs:

Currently, this new search feature is now only live in the United States. However, Bing is also looking to expand it to more markets soon. 

Updated: 25 April 2024