Google’s first broad core algorithm upgrade of 2022 is now live. According to Google’s Danny Sullivan, it’s called the May 2022 core upgrade.
The most recent core upgrade, which occurred in November 2021, was more than 6 months ago.
The announcement was made. “Today, we’re launching our May 2022 core update,” Google added. The full rollout will take roughly 1-2 weeks.”
“We make core adjustments to improve Search generally and keep up with the evolving nature of the web.” While nothing is a core update is special to any one site, these upgrades may cause some obvious changes in how sites function, as we’ve previously stated in our guidance on what site owners should know about core updates,” Google added.
Core updates are rumoured. Since May 16, the SEO community has been witnessing indicators of a possible Google algorithm upgrade going out. Those rumours have not been confirmed by Google.
Prior to today, any volatility was most likely unrelated to those rumours. Perhaps Google was putting this fundamental update to the test? Google’s John Mueller addressed this directly, saying, “When we announce core upgrades, we start rolling them out at that point, not before.”
The rollout began this morning. At 11:30 a.m. ET, Google began rolling out this major core upgrade. And Google will notify us once the update is complete.
Updates to the core. The most recent previous core update was the November 2021 core update, which came after the July 2021 core update and before that, the June 2021 core update, which was a major update that took a long time to spread out.
Prior to that, we had the December 2020 core update, which was much larger than the May 2020 core update, and that upgrade was also large and broad, taking a few weeks to fully roll out. Prior to that, there was the January 2020 core update, which we discussed here.
The core update from September 2019 was the one before that. Many SEOs and webmasters thought the upgrade was weaker than prior core updates because it didn’t have as much of an impact. More information regarding previous Google upgrades can be found here.
What to do if you’re hit by a car. In the past, Google has offered suggestions on what to do if you’ve been harmed by a core upgrade. There are no precise steps to follow to get back on track, and a drop in rankings may not indicate anything is wrong with your pages.
If your site is affected by a core change, Google has provided a list of questions to consider. According to Google, there is some recovery time between core upgrades, but the major shift comes after another core update.
Why should we be concerned? When Google modifies its search ranking algorithms, your site’s ranking in the search results may improve or deteriorate. Knowing when Google makes these modifications gives us a reference point for determining whether the change was due to something you did on your website or something Google updated with its ranking algorithm. Google is expected to release a key ranking update today, so keep a watch on your statistics and rankings over the next few weeks.
