Now that the Google January 2020 core update is mostly rolled out, we have asked several data providers to share their findings on this update. All of the data providers agree that this core update was significant and impacted numerous websites.
The facts. According to Google, the January 2020 core update began rolling out around 12:00 PM ET on Monday, January 13th, and was "mostly done" by Thursday morning, January 16th. This global update was not specific to any region, language, or category of websites. It is considered a classic "broad core update."
What the tools are seeing. We consulted third-party data companies to understand the impact of this update.
RankRanger. Mordy Oberstein from RankRanger stated, "the YMYL (your money, your life) niches got hit very hard." He described it as a huge update, with substantial movement in the SERP for the Health and Finance niches and significant increases across all niches when considering the top 10 results overall.
A chart from RankRanger shows the rank volatility broken down by industry and position.
“Excluding the Retail niche, which saw volatility in the December 6th update, the January 2020 core update was more extensive across all industries and ranking positions,” Mordy Oberstein added. He also mentioned that the Retail niche separated itself from the levels of volatility observed in December.
SEMRush. Yulia Ibragimova from SEMRush noted, "We can see that the latest Google Update was quite big and noticed across almost every category." The most volatile categories, aside from Sports and News, included Online Communities, Games, Arts & Entertainment, and Finance. She added that all categories saw major changes, and the update did not appear to target any specific topics.
A chart from SEMRush shows the volatility by category for mobile vs. desktop search results.
The top ten winners according to SEMRush were Dictionary.com, Hadith of the Day, Discogs, ABSFairings, X-Rates, TechCrunch, Shutterstock, 247Patience, GettyImages, and LiveScores.com. The top ten losers were mp3-youtube.download, TotalJerkFace.com, GenVideos.io, Tuffy, TripSavvy, Honolulu.gov, NaughtyFind, Local.com, RuthChris, and Local-First.org.
Sistrix. Johannes Beus from Sistrix explained that "domains related to YMYL topics have been re-evaluated by the search algorithm, gaining or losing visibility as a whole." He noted that domains previously affected by similar updates are more likely to be affected again, while the absolute fluctuations seem to be decreasing with each update.
A chart from Sistrix shows this change.
According to Sistrix, the big winners were goal.com, onhealth.com, CarGurus, verywellhealth.com, Fandango, Times Of Israel, Royal.uk, and WestField. The big losers were CarMagazine.co.uk, Box Office Mojo, SkySports, ArnoldClark.com, CarBuyer.co.uk, History Extra, Evan Shalshaw, and NHS Inform.
SearchMetrics. Marcus Tober from SearchMetrics stated, "the January Core Update seems to revert some changes, for better or worse, depending on who you are." He noted that thin content got penalized, and Google emphasized YMYL. This update seems to have affected fewer pages compared to the March or September 2019 updates but has similar characteristics.
Examples shared by SearchMetrics include Onhealth.com, which saw improvements during the January 2020 update following fluctuations in previous updates.
Verywellhealth.com was a loser during multiple core updates.
Draxe.com, which has also seen fluctuations during past updates, seems to be a big winner this time with an 83% increase.
The big winners according to SearchMetrics were esty.com, cargurus.com, verywellhealth.com, overstock.com, addictinggames.com, onhealth.com, bigfishgames.com, and health.com. The big losers were tmz.com, academy.com, kbhgames.com, orbitz.com, silvergames.com, autolist.com, etonline.com, trovit.com, and pampers.com.
What to do if you are hit. Google has provided advice in the past on what to consider if you are negatively impacted by a core update. There are no specific actions to take for recovery, and a negative rankings impact may not indicate any issues with your pages. However, Google has a list of questions to consider if your site is affected by a core update.
Why we care. It is challenging to identify steps to reverse an algorithmic hit on your site, especially with Google core updates. The data and previous experiences suggest that these core updates are broad, covering many overall quality issues. If your site was affected by a core update, it is often recommended to take a step back, view your site holistically, and identify areas for overall improvement.
