14th January 2020 was just an ordinary day for most of us as we went about with our regular work, but not so for Google.
On the 13th Google tweeted about releasing a broad core algorithm update called January 2020 Core Update.
Google explained their Algorithm updates in the best possible way as referenced below.
“One way to think of how a core update operates is to imagine you made a list of the top 100 movies in 2015. A few years later in 2019, you refresh the list. It’s going to naturally change. Some new and wonderful movies that never existed before will now be candidates for inclusion. You might also reassess some films and realize they deserved a higher place on the list than they had before.”
Google Webmaster Central Blog
An Algorithm changes tracking tool Cognitive SEO also was able to track the fluctuations on keywords ranking changes.
Our Client’s keywords ranking change after the 2020 core Algorithm update
We were able to notice massive improvements on our clients keyword rankings after the algorithm update. We have always deployed the best practice when it comes to providing SEO services to our valuable clients.
Some chatter about the Algorithm update from the SEO community
Two hours After the update went live, we began dropping for dozens of keywords one after the other. The effects from our end/datacenters were visible quite fast. We are also losing rich snippets stars for every phrase, after years of having them being visible in the SERPs. We are religiously dropping for everything across the board, including for fresh and expert written content. But I guess if a site has issues that would drag it down, it’s a site wide effect during an update. We’re definitely experiencing that right now. I guess we didn’t do enough work to improve our site and user experience. If I’m being honest and objective with respect to our site, in theory, I can see why it’s dropping. Unpleasant but it’s the reality. Need to work harder.
For us, it’s been horrible since the second week of November. I don’t ever recall Google’s traffic being this bad. The quantity is there, but the quality went right down the toilet. Let’s hope what is apparently rolling out now will dramatically improve traffic quality. Here’s what I’m looking at for this month:
Users: +9.8%
Revenue: -40.6%
Conversion Rate: -38.2%
Almost a 10% increase in traffic and conversions fall off the cliff? Really?Keep in mind this is on top of what turned out to be a terrible November and December. Google’s traffic has gotten really, really bad. And just when you think the quality of traffic coming from Google can’t get any worse, it does!
Have you been affected by the recent algorithm update? Has your website seen significant changes in the keywords rankings, drop in organic traffic, not many inquiries etc. Get in touch me and I’m happy to analyse your website along with you in identifying and fixing the issue.
Farhan Fawzer is a Sri Lankan SEO Specialist and Online Marketing Consultant.
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