SEO Year in Review 2020: COVID Forces Platforms to Adapt Local and E-Commerce Offerings, and More
Reflections on 2020: A Crucial Year for the SEO Industry
Last year, we described 2019 as a "roller coaster of ups and downs." In hindsight, the industry was not prepared for the challenges that 2020 brought. The way major players in the search industry responded to new needs, influenced by the pandemic, will have long-lasting effects on how marketers operate.
From Google’s new organic Shopping listings, SEOs advocating for gender equality and diversity, to the forthcoming Page Experience update, here is a look back at the most significant SEO news of 2020.
The Google Algorithm Updates of 2020
Some suspected that major algorithm updates would be paused due to the pandemic, but that wasn’t the case. Barry Schwartz has already recapped the year’s most significant algorithm updates, so here’s a brief summary:
Core Updates: Google launched the January 2020 core update early in the year, completing it within days. Four months later, the May 2020 core update created significant shifts. The year closed with the impactful December 2020 core update, strategically placed between the Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopping season and the end-of-year holidays.
The Rise of BERT: At the SearchOn event, Google announced that BERT was now powering almost all English-language queries. December saw the departure of AI researcher Timnit Gebru, emphasizing concerns about the potential biases in training language models with large datasets.
Upcoming Updates: Announced in May, the Page Experience update will roll out in May 2021 and will include a mix of existing search ranking factors, enhanced by Core Web Vitals metrics. Additionally, passage indexing was announced, aimed at improving the retrieval of relevant results from web pages.
Key Moments in SEO News
Google’s new handling of nofollow links arrived on March 1, introducing new link attributes: rel="sponsored" and rel="ugc". The change didn’t ignite much reaction, possibly overshadowed by the pandemic.
Structured Data: Google ended support for data-vocabulary.org markup, delayed by the pandemic until January 29, 2021. The Rich Results Test Tool replaced the Structured Data Testing Tool, although the latter will continue to exist on schema.org.
SEO Documentation: Bing revised its Webmaster Guidelines, and Google updated its Search Quality Raters Guidelines with more detailed instructions and a new section on dictionary and encyclopedia results.
SERP Changes: Google decluttered the search results by deduplicating featured snippets so they no longer appear as regular listings. Bing introduced pre-trained language models to answer queries with yes or no answers, and Google made it easier to find featured snippet text by highlighting it on the hosting page.
E-Commerce Developments
Google announced the mobile Popular Products section for apparel and shoes, powered by product schema and product feeds from Google Merchant Center. It also announced that unpaid, organic listings would be included in its Shopping search results, marking a significant pivot in e-commerce strategy.
Following Google’s move, Bing also transitioned its Shopping results to include organic listings. Meanwhile, Pinterest launched new shopping features, including a "Shop" tab and integrative search functionalities to make finding similar products easier.
Significant Local SEO Developments
Maps and My Business: Google Maps turned 15 and saw a major app update, adding new tabs and features. Google My Business gained new attributes to highlight health and safety measures and the introduction of the Small Business Advisors program. The program offers SMBs consulting on Google products.
COVID-19 Responses: Google enabled businesses to indicate temporary closures and update operating hours. Local SEOs noted delays in listings and updates due to Google’s prioritization of critical edits. Yelp and Nextdoor introduced features to help local businesses and communities during the pandemic.
Reporting and Analytics
Google Search Console (GSC): GSC received several updates, such as the new removals tool, Core Web Vitals report, and a revamped crawl stats report. Google also launched Google Search Console Insights for content creators and publishers.
Google Analytics 4: The introduction of Google Analytics 4 brought expanded predictive insights, deeper Google Ads integration, and cross-device measurement capabilities. While Universal Analytics remains available, new features will focus on GA4.
Industry News and Social Matters
Diversity and gender equality became central themes as the industry responded to civil unrest and calls for social justice. Professionals volunteered to help small businesses, and studies highlighted gender disparities in the field.
Just for Fun
Notable moments included Google unveiling a feature to identify songs by humming, Warner Bros. renaming a movie for search optimization, and Netflix’s "Tiger King" making headlines for SEO-related misconduct.
Looking Forward to 2021
Anticipate the rollout of the Google Page Experience update in May, complete with Core Web Vitals. Ensure your structured data is updated, and prepare for the mobile-first indexing deadline to optimize your site’s migration.
As we reflect on a transformative year, the lessons learned and changes made in 2020 will shape the SEO landscape for years to come.
