Google January 2020 Core Algorithm Update

Google has announced that on January 13th they will be rolling out their first algorithm update of 2020.

As this is a broad core update, the update simply named “January 2020” update will impact all search results on a global scale. This won’t be an update that be targeted with specific strategies such as site speed, link building, more content etc.

Below is the announcement from Google.

“Later today, we are releasing a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. It is called the January 2020 Core Update. Our guidance about such updates remains as we’ve covered before.”

Why Google Rolled Out The January 2020 Algorithm Update

Google conducts updates to their algorithm very often, with major updates happening every few months. The purpose behind these updates are to help provide a better user experience for people using the search engine.

While some websites will likely see potential significant drops in rankings with the updates, it does not mean that you are being penalised. More often then not it just means that Google has determined that another website will likely provide a better experience then your website.

What Do I Need To Do If My Traffic Drop From The Algorithm Update

If you notice that your rankings or traffic is decreasing over the next few weeks, then chances are you being affected by the new core updates. We recommend you look at the following.

1. Look at the drops in keyword rankings and the pages you have created. There is a chance that you may need to write more content to provide a better user experience over your competitors.
2. Looking at the overall site speed of your website. If you websites loads slower then your competitors, you are likely to go down in rankings.
3. Check your Google Analytics to find out what devices most of your traffic is coming from. If 80% of your traffic comes from mobile devices then make sure your website is built in a way that is easy to use for mobile users. If not, we recommend structuring your website in a way that will be more beneficial to them.
4. Look at your competitors to see why they may have increased in rankings. Here is a list of some metrics you should look at when it comes to your competitors.
   1. How many pages on their website.
   2. How much content they have around a particular topic.
   3. How often they update content on their website.
   4. How fast their website is in comparison to yours.
   5. How active are they on social media channels.
   6. How many backlinks do their pages have.
   7. What is their domain and page authority compared to your own website.

This is generally a good starting point and something that we do for all of our current clients. This will give you a good indication of what you can do to increase your rankings, or recover them post core algorithm.