SEO Monthly Round Up - May 2020

Even a global pandemic and worldwide chaos doesn’t stop Google from updating its algorithm. Just when we needed a break……

Don’t worry if you’ve missed it - we’ve got you covered. Here are the most significant SEO updates and new tools that you need to be aware of this month.

May 2020 Core Update

On the 4th May, Google announced their May 2020 Core Update was to start rolling out imminently. This update was a broad update so not particularly targeting websites based on location, language or industry like some of the more recent ones.

Google SearchLiason’s twitter confirmed this to be complete on the 18th May.

If you’ve not already, we recommend that you dive into your analytical tools and check on your visibility after this update. Although we can’t give you all advice on how to deal with this in one blog post, as different industries will be affected differently, we are happy to discuss your SEO strategy with you individually if you need to change it following the update but aren’t sure how.

Covid-19

Search has been thrown up in the air over the last few months with the ongoing pandemic. Some industries have seen a huge spike as consumers buy essential items, and others have flat-lined as their industries are temporarily completely shut down.

Google announced in May that they’ve never had as many searches for a single news topic over a long period of time like they are with Covid-19. In order to respond to this, they have introduced a new Local News box to surface coronavirus related searches and better present local content within the Top Stories box.

However, some good news from all of this, there has been increasing digital activity due to customers not being able to go to shops, therefore there has been an increase in online shopping in some industries. If you’re lucky enough to have seen this, you need to make sure you’re showing up in those search results.

Will this last even when shops reopen? Shopping is likely to be a different experience for a long while yet. You should make sure your digital presence is established to put you ahead of the game for when spending habits and patterns get back to normal.

Search Console Updates

Over May, there have been a few small updates in Google Search Console to reports and new reports added. Though they are small, and won’t be useful for all industries, they will be very helpful if they do affect your industry.

Schema

Google Search Console now shows Special Announcement and Guided Recipe markup data in its Performance report.

These new reports show errors, warnings and valid pages for the makeup implemented on your site, as well as impressions, clicks and CTR for pages with Special Announcement markup.

Now it’s much easier to troubleshoot issues with Special Announcement structured data and see how those pages are performing in Google search. This is especially useful for Special Announcement data as it can be used for important public announcements relating to health and safety, which is particularly relevant at this moment in time.

The extra recipe markup report can help to identify issues with your recipe makeup so you can get them rectified and lead to your recipes showing up better in Google search results.

Speed Report Changes to Core Web Vitals

Don’t be alarmed if you’ve dove into Google Search Console over the last month and found that the Speed report isn’t there anymore. It is - it’s just called the Core Web Vitals report.

This new report isn’t exactly the same. It now includes the Core Web Vitals which were introduced by Google early on in May.

The Core Web Vitals consist of three new metrics:

• Largest Contentful Paint which measures loading speed.
• First Input Delay which measures interactivity.
• Cumulative Layout Shift which measures visual stability.

These are a set of new metrics that will be used to determine the user experience of a website which Google has recently announced will become a ranking factor within the next year. Don’t worry about this too much, Google has reassured us that we will get six months notice for this update and it won’t happen until at least 2021.

But, if you want to get ahead, this is a big heads up that focus is shifting to delivering a great user experience. So this is something that should definitely be incorporated into your SEO strategies moving forward.

The huge shift to digital at the minute has seen increases of four of five times in search volume for some industries online. You don’t want to miss out on those opportunities.

Contact us today to discuss your post-pandemic digital strategy today.