On the 14th of January, Google rolled out their January 2020 Core Update. Google performs updates to their search algorithm and user interface throughout the year; particularly disruptive updates are referred to as Core Updates. This was a global update and was not specific to any region, language or category of web sites.
Whilst Google does not disclose what they have changed in the latest update, there are pointers to what has been done. RankRanger’s Mordy Oberstein said, “the YMYL (your money, your life) niches got hit very hard.” “This a huge update,” he added. “There is massive movement at the top of the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) for the Health and Finance niches and incredible increases for all niches when looking at the top 10 results overall.”
The finance and health categories saw the most volatility in Google’s rankings as shown in the graph below:
Google has provided some advice on what to do if your website takes a hit from one of their core updates. There aren’t specific actions to take to recover, and in fact, a negative rankings impact may not signal anything is wrong with your pages. Google describes their updates as a top 100 movies list
“The list will change, and films previously higher on the list that move down aren’t bad. There are simply more deserving films that are coming before them.”
