Yesterday, January 14th, Google launched its first update of the year, the January 2020 Core Update. As with all Google updates, they aren’t revealing too much information regarding the exact changes made and how it will affect users.
Google’s statement
Because they aren’t giving anything away (and don’t usually ever do), Google has referred concerned users to an excerpt from their previous blog post regarding previous core updates: “Several times a year, we make significant, broad changes to our search algorithms and systems. We refer to these as ‘core updates’. They’re designed to ensure that overall, we’re delivering on our mission to present relevant and authoritative content to searchers”.
It continues by saying: “Some sites may note drops or gains during them. We know those with sites that experience drops will be looking for a fix, and we want to ensure they don’t try to fix the wrong things. Moreover, there might not be anything to fix at all”.
Key points to remember
Google’s advice on how the January 2020 Core Update will affect users and how they can respond is the same advice they normally give when a core update is released.
The key points to remember with this new core update are:
- It will never be simply ‘one thing’ that can be changed if your website starts losing traffic or decreases in rankings.
- Content quality will still be the key for improving performance with SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
- The core update won’t be targeting particular websites, ranking factors or spam tactics.
As it usually takes a few weeks for the full effects of it on SEO to be realised, you can keep up-to-date with all the news regarding the January 2020 Core Update by following Google’s Twitter account.
