Marketers Brace for the First Big Update of 2022
On May 25, Google Search Central posted on Twitter that they were releasing the May 2022 Broad Core Update.
As the news quickly spread among the online community, many started to speculate about recent keyword fluxes, changes in SERPs, and other types of differences they’ve noticed over the prior weeks.
Let’s dive into some of the chatter about what types of things have been shifting as the update continues its two-week rollout.
Early Reports and Insights on the Update
- Even before Google’s announcement, many Twitter users suspected that we may already be in the middle of an update, or that one was just around the corner.
- Various keyword tracking tools noticed high volatility just a day after the update was rolled out, according to Search Engine Land.
- Featured snippets seem to be one of the areas of SERPs that is being hit by the update.
- Others have also noticed a mass purge in the number of results in searches for certain queries.
- It may be likely that if your site was impacted during the July 2021 and November 2021 updates, this update may cause similar changes.
- There was also a bug in Google Search Console that caused the reports for Google News performance to drop. It was confirmed to not be a part of the core update.
- According to SEMRush, real estate has been impacted the most, but hobbies and leisure, health, animals and pets, and books and literature are also seeing major fluxes.
- Aside from changes in search results, Google seems to be testing some visual changes on search as well with side-by-side results.
High-Level Details to Note
- The update launched on May 25 at around 11:30 p.m. EST.
- The last time we had a broad core update was in November 2021.
- It will take two weeks for the rollout of the update to complete.
- The update is global, in all languages, and has not been limited to one specific type of content.
- Google has not told the public any specific details on what the update is going to impact.
- If you are seeing fluxes in your data, keep in mind Google’s general advice on how to navigate core updates.
