Google May 2020 Update: Something Is Wrong

Google has announced that its one of the major core updates is rolled out completely. Similar to every time, this time also multiple websites have lost rankings and multiple are enjoying the great rewards. However, what’s new this time is there seems something terribly wrong. What? Let’s check with the details.

The main objective of Google has always been providing useful results to the person who is searching. To meet this goal, it always has been adopting new technologies and tools. For example,  AI (Artificial Intelligence) is the latest tool used by Google to show the most relevant results to the searchers.

Google has been rolling out different quality algorithms to deliver better quality results to its users. In 2020, it had rolled out its first major core update in January and in May it rolled out its second major core algorithm update.

Every time Google rolls out major algorithm updates, it affects site ranking majorly, and why not? Google intends to do so. Yes, webmasters who lose rankings cry over it, but majorly these quality assurance algorithms of Google are appreciated by everyone, even webmasters. However, this time, the thing is different. Everyone is clearly seeing this algorithm has not improved the quality of search results rather it has degraded the quality somewhere.

This algorithm has brought 3 major changes, which are depicting probably the weaker side of technology. Let’s understand in detail.

1. Insertion of social media results

According to many webmasters, this core update has started showing too many results from Pinterest, Facebook, and other social media websites. Google is renowned for showing high-quality results, but the results of social media are having just an image with little to no content. Instead of showing high-quality content, this type of result is ranking on the top which definitely cannot be considered as high-quality results.

Here are some tweets made by webmasters on this regard for further clarity:

2. Rewarding big brands

Many Google algorithms have rewarded big brands with a fact that they usually have good referral links, great quality content, and other positive ranking factors. Then, what is wrong this time?

Well, according to the webmasters, Google is showing the same page twice of the same site. See this conversation.

Moreover, Google shows all links of Amazon even if the search intent of the searcher is different. Check these tweets.

3. Punishing sites with high negative link velocity

According to an article published on one of the renowned SEO news sites, SEJ, the Google Core May Update 2020 has punished sites with negative link velocity.

Negative link velocity means if a site lost a lot of backlinks and does not gain equal new backlinks.

Generally, sites receive new backlinks and lost some of them. A good site that takes advantage of the best SEO services normally does not lose more links than a number of new links it acquires. However, there is a cache by keeping the new circumstances in the mind. I will disclose it in a while.

The concluding point is Google punished sites that have high negative link velocity.

Has Google Made a Mistake This Time?

All this might sound confusing.

There might come up with a question, has Google made a mistake?

See what a webmaster says:

I would like to be a diplomat here. But, being in this industry, I would love to give the answer. Keep reading.

What Can Be The Reason Behind These Unusual Results?

I do not see any doubts in saying that there are bad quality results this time in the Google search results pages after the Google May 2020 Core Update Roll Out.

There is also a logical reason why this might have happened.

As mentioned earlier, Google has started using AI-based engines to identify user behaviour, and based on that it shows results.

Being an AI researcher, I know one fact that AI engines use data and refine them to identify user behaviour and predict future steps to gain better results.

Google AI engines must be doing the same. They must be analyzing how searchers search and what kinds of results are loved by them. If we keep the current situation in mind, we are going through the COVID 19 pandemic. Thus, it is obvious that people might be talking more about the Coronavirus on social media platforms and indulging in the conversation there. Thus, Google might have started including those social media threads and posts in the search results. This is the answer to the first concern raised by the webmasters.

Moving towards the second concern, in which, people are puzzled by seeing multiple Amazon and Etsy results. Well, this might be the result of panic searching for some goods and products. For example, Etsy appears with almost all queries attached to the word “homemade”. Probably people searching for homemade masks used Etsy more often to purchase the same or something similar may have happened. A similar case might be working for Amazon getting a majority of top positions for a search keyword. This answers the second concern of the webmasters.

Now, let’s talk about the Negative Link Velocity. Well, this is an obvious quality sign for Google which also indicates that someone may have practiced black hat SEO activities to acquire a lot of links, which is why he has lost a lot of links now. In this case, that kind of site has to be penalized. But! Hold on! Before making any judgment, we again need to keep the Pandemic in mind. Many sites lost referral links because of the pandemic. For example, clubs, restaurants, gyms, etc. stopped receiving links they used to do and they are getting penalized by Google because of high negative link velocity.

What Can You Do?

There is nothing too specific at the moment one can do.

Yes, if you got penalized because of negative link velocity, working in the direction of getting more links can be helpful.

What Will Google Do?

This is impossible to say because Google has always been unpredictable about its actions.

If Google is focused on catering to users based on their behaviour, which is definitely Coronavirus-centric these days as people are searching more about it, then we need to deal with the situation. However, if Google is listening to the webmasters, we can expect the next update (Announced or Unannounced) that works to show real quality results instead of influenced results.

If you have any queries, feel free to ask.