Google Updates in Q2 — Winners & Losers

Quotes

• “It was textbook. They (Google) rolled out a regular cadence and their core algorithm update. Little controversy in the industry like some people are debating whether or not there is a rights claim for them to roll it out but I would say it is just business as usual from their side.” -Tyson

• “Even though there is haywire in the middle of this COVID, I would say dont be too surprised that there is a core update in Q2 this year.” -Tyson

• “The big one was the May core update, similar to other core updates it is focusing around content relevancy and intent of content inquiries and I think this one fits the regular bill in some regards to core updates.” -Tyson

• “They have some different variables to it. One, it was in the midst of this shifting surge of consumer demand behavior. That may be a little bit harder to separate from what is just a changing behavior and what is actually like an algorithm update.” -Tyson

• “The other piece in comparison to other updates is, this one is a little more focused on the understanding of query intent versus the contents intent. The best example of that was Spotify and they took a massive hit because they lost a lot of rankings on general artists names. Before they would rank for Metallica and you will get the discography page. Google interpreted that the intent with searching for Metallica is going to be more specific to news articles and editorial type of information on the artist rather than just where can I listen to Metallica.” -Tyson

• “NLP has been in one of Googles core development in the last couple of years. They definitely made strides in understanding language and intent and all the updates we have seen are evidence of those progressions. Its the query intent rather than understanding what a page is about.” -Tyson

• “How Google adjusted to this is one, on the SERP elements. They were also changing the way they are interpreting these inquiries based on how often they were being used with other different words. An example is the world map, where the CDC now is ranking for the term world map because there is so much intent behind when someone searches for world map they probably want to know where the corona cases are.” -Tyson

• “From the SEO perspective, I think Google is obviously trying to do and polish the experience related to COVID experience. Obviously that is going to be on peoples minds, it changes user intent for a wide variety of queries. I think they should also be commended for putting together services about where to find testing.” -Ben

• “The changes in GoogleMyBusiness are hopefully not only related to coronavirus but obviously their new types of circumstances and availability so its nice to see that Google spent some time there.” -Ben