Google May 2020 Core Update: Find out if your site has been penalized

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The answer is never certain, and if we want this is also the beauty of dealing with positioning on search engines . Everything is constantly changing, no one can truly say they are immune to updates and the news regarding new updates is often very different from each other.In this article we will try to understand a little better how Google's 2020 May Core Update influenced the SERPs and what is worth checking on our websites.What is a Google Core UpdateIt was May 4, 2020 when the news of Google's new Core Update appeared on Twitter, with the clarification of the need for one or two weeks for the complete roll out:May Core Update 2020 Twitter AnnouncementThe news of the completion of the rollout arrived on May 18th, although interesting fluctuations in SERP had already been seen since the 4th.Google May 2020 Core Update full rollout announcementBut what is a Google Core Update ?



This is an update to the core search algorithm, the effects of which Special Data can often be a game-changer for websites.These updates do not act directly on a particular factor, as happened for example for Panda with contents or for Penguin to deal with spam links, but they reconsider the parameters that Google examines to determine the ranking of websites, giving greater or lesser weight to various factors that are often not well identified.The result? A nice jolt to the search results pages (SERP), where you can see web pages rise that weren't there before and see others, sometimes even very authoritative ones, disappear (or go down).It should be specified that Google updates are constant and numerous throughout the year, therefore we must not think of the search engine as a static entity that is occasionally shaken by updates, but rather as a constantly evolving organism that little by little it becomes more and more complete and intelligent .





The sectors affected by the updateAs with all Google updates, and in particular the core updates, there were winners and losers, i.e. websites which, thanks to the update, acquired higher positions and other websites which, on the contrary, recorded a ranking (and therefore traffic) is rather low.Google May Core Update 2020: Losers & WinnersFrom a study on the volatility of the SERP conducted by Search Engine Land based on data from the SemRush Sensor tool , it emerges that the sectors most affected by the update were those relating to the following areas:TourismReal estateHealth and wellnessDomestic and non-domestic animalsPeople and society (including financial sector)Entertainment (public events)Do you notice anything particular in this list? Yes, these are all sectors that have suffered not only the blow of the update, but also and above all of covid-19.In fact, these are particularly delicate sectors, as in the case of health and well-being, or which involve travel and public events. Could it really be the effect of the update that caused them to lose positions? Or were the drops highlighted only due to a natural adaptation of the SERPs based on statistics on the most interesting sectors for users? We will probably never know, but it is right to take note of such strong fluctuations.