On 2020 Jan 14, Google announced that it is releasing a core broad update named the January 2020 Core Update.
It started to roll out around noon New York time yesterday. Google just echoed its previous advice around core updates. But this Google algorithm update does seem substantial and big based on some of the early chatter and signals.
The previous core update, around September 2019 update was slow to roll out and wasn't a shockingly upsetting one. This January 2020 core update does seem a lot bigger than the September 2019 core update, at least based on early signals and chatter within the SEO industry.
Here is Google's announcement:
Later today, we are releasing a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. It is called the January 2020 Core Update. Our guidance about such updates remains as we’ve covered before. Please see this blog post for more about that:https://t.co/e5ZQUA3RC6
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) January 13, 2020
So, what changed?
Google has moved to reassure site owners that if their sites are facing decreases in rankings or traffic, that there might not be anything wrong with their site. But they do ask that you focus on only offering best content, which is what their google search algorithms want to deliver to search engine end users.
What has changed is the way that Google’s systems now assess website content, and they provide a quick and simple example of how this works.
The like a Google search core update to a top movies list from a few years ago, let’s say 2015. When you assess that same list in 2019 or 2020, there have obviously been newer and better movies released, so the site needs to be refreshed to be relevant for today’s audience.