Google Algorithms January Update: Analyzing Results

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Search Engine Land surveyed data providers to find out how the latest update to Google s core algorithm, the January 2020 Core Update, has had an impact on search results.

On January 13, Google launched the update, which by January 17 was nearing completion. It usually takes about two weeks for specialists to implement a full update cycle.

All data providers who took part in the survey agreed that the new update turned out to be quite global and had an impact on most of the sites.

RankRanger

According to the Marketing Director of RankRanger Mordi Oberstein (Mordy Oberstein), very large impact of innovation Google has targeted the YMYL (Your money or Your life) niche.

“This is a very large-scale update. In the top SERP, there have been major changes in the Health and Finance niches. If you look at the top 10 results as a whole, there are huge increases in other niches as well. ”

The chart below provides a breakdown of volatility by industry:

“With the exception of the retail niche, which I observed was the focus of the December 6th update, the January 2020 Core Update is a much larger update across all categories and at every position in the rankings,” added Oberstein.

SEMRush

SEMRush commented on the Google update as follows:

We see that the last algorithm update in the search engine was very large-scale and had an impact on almost all categories.

The most striking changes affected such areas as: “Sports and News”, “Online Communities”, “Games”, “Arts and Entertainment” and “Finance”.

At the same time, the company added that big changes were traced in all categories, without exception, so they have no reason to suspect that the update, as planned by Google specialists, should have affected only one specific topic.

Below is the comparative volatility for mobile and desktop search results.

According to SEMRush, the top 10 “winners” are as follows:

  1. Dictionary.com
  2. Hadith of the Day
  3. Discogs
  4. ABSFairings
  5. X-Rates
  6. TechCrunch
  7. ShutterStock
  8. 247Patience
  9. GettyImages
  10. LiveScores.com

The top 10 “losers” included:

  1. mp3-youtube.download
  2. TotalJerkFace.com
  3. GenVideos.io
  4. Tuffy
  5. TripSavvy
  6. Honolulu.gov
  7. Naughtyfind
  8. Local.com
  9. RuthChris
  10. Local-First.org

Sistrix

The next Google update was not ignored by Sistrix, which, as always, made an analysis of the update in its blog.

The data available to Sistrix indicates that during the update, the search algorithm revalued domains that are related to YMYL topics. This led to a noticeable change in their visibility.

At the same time, the company believes that those domains that have already been affected by such updates earlier are likely to be subject to changes again.

If we talk about absolute fluctuations, then they decline with each subsequent update. Google is showing increasing accuracy in its estimates and does not deviate much from previous estimates.

According to Sistrix, the “palm” was earned by:

  1. goal.com
  2. onhealth.com
  3. CarGurus
  4. verywellhealth.com
  5. Fandango
  6. Times Of Israel
  7. Royal.uk
  8. WestField

Among the resources that had to suffer the largest losses are:

  1. CarMagazine.co.uk
  2. Box Office Mojo
  3. SkySports
  4. ArnoldClark.com
  5. CarBuyer.co.uk
  6. History Extra
  7. Evan shalshaw
  8. NHS Inform

SearchMetrics

Marcus Tober, founder of SearchMetrics, commented on the situation as follows:

The January Core Update has transformed some of the previous changes. For each individual case, these transformations entailed changes, either for the better or for the worse. This is another update to the core algorithm, where thin content has been pessimized and where Google has focused on YMYL. Apparently, this update did not have an impact on as many pages as the March and September updates. However, these three updates have similar characteristics.

Markus also gave several examples.

Onhealth.com was among the “winners” after the March 2019 Core Update, and after the September 2019 Core Update, it was among the “losers”. The January Core Update has resulted in the resource again being among those lucky ones who have seen positive changes.

The Verywellhealth.com resource fell into the category of “losers” in the course of several such updates:

During Core Updates, Draxe.com experienced ups and downs. The latest update gave him the opportunity to improve his position by 83%.

Resources with the most significant improvements:

  1. esty.com
  2. cargurus.com
  3. verywellhealth.com
  4. overstock.com
  5. addictinggames.com
  6. onhealth.com
  7. bigfishgames.com
  8. health.com.

The sites that suffered the biggest losses:

  1. tmz.com
  2. academy.com
  3. kbhgames.com
  4. orbitz.com
  5. silvergames.com
  6. autolist.com
  7. etonline.com
  8. trovit.com
  9. pampers.com

The big picture

Analyzing the above information, we can conclude that the update was quite broad, affected almost all categories and brought improvements to some resources and losses to others.

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