To find out what you can learn about spikes or drops in search rankings across different industries, we analyzed the impact of Google’s May 20,22 core update.
Google makes one to two algorithmic changes daily. Most of these are not obvious.
Google will also announce “core updates” a few times per year.
Core updates are major changes to Google’s algorithm or systems that cause significant fluctuations in search results.
This article overviews the May 2022 core updates on search queries and industries.
To provide more insight and links to assist your website in recovering from these changes, we analyze the winners and losers.
Core Update Terminology
Google is the only one who guess the precise nature of core updates, and it did so in the past with the Speed update and Freshness upgrade.
We can examine two factors to determine the impact of a Google core update on organic search results: visibility and volatility.
The visibility tells us how organic a domain is in Google’s search results.
A site that ranks higher for high-volume keywords is more likely to get clicks.
A decreasing visibility metric indicates that the domain is losing keywords.
Volatility is the measure of how much visibility increases or decreases.
Core updates can be detected by the visibility metric, which dramatically increases or decreases over a period of time that coincides with Google’s announcement.
Let’s consider these terms and look at the Semrush Sensor data and the Sistrix visibility indicator to find out more about the May Core Update 2022.
Industries Affected
Early in the rollout, marketers discussed large swings and drops of traffic across different sites.
Semrush sensor data revealed that the May 2022 update was mild in comparison to the November 2021 core update.
Mordy Upperstein, Head SEO branding at Wix reviewed Semrush Sensor data from June 01 and found no indications that the May 2022 update targeted particular industries.
Oberstein was unsure of the fluctuations that would indicate that an update targeted a particular niche. He said that it wasn’t hard to find a number but that there is a consistent trend among types of content in that specific vertical.
Oberstein suggests that people examine what’s happening at the page level “… because you won’t be able to diagnose what’s happening until you look at a specific ranking shift (keyword).
Search Queries -
Marcus Tober, Founder of Search metrics, broke down rank unstable based on keyword intent during a Wix webinar. He used Semrush sensor data.
You can break down keyword intent into four main categories.
- Informational: Get the answer to your question or general information.
- Navigation: Locate a site or page.
- Commercial: Explore brands and services.
- Transactional: Perform an action or make a purchase.
This graph shows transactional (a purchase) and informational search queries that experienced over 50% volatility during May 2022’s core update.
Tober’s findings align with our observations about who won and lost in the SISTRIX visibility indicator, which we will explore next.
Winners and Losers
We can see which keywords are winners and losers based on the Sistrix visibility Index (keyword rankings weighted according to search volume and click probability).
Winners
The winners were those websites that had the biggest absolute visibility change in the UK.
Big Brand eCommerce
eCommerce has been a hot topic on social media. The Sistrix UX visibility indicator supports this conversation.
The table shows brands such as Etsy, eBay, and Amazon that have the biggest absolute visibility change.
They now occupy more of the virtual “storefront” online.
The drop in affiliate site owners may be due to the increased brand presence and three product reviews over the past year.
In implementing entire product schemas, the big brand eCommerce sites (Amazon and eBay) have surpassed smaller areas.
Marcus Tober shared this finding with 51% volatility in transactional search queries (a purchase).
Video
The popularity of video sites such as YouTube, TikTok and Disney Plus, Hulu, Hulu Plus, Twitch, and Disney Plus has increased dramatically.
TikTok saw the most significant growth, as shown in the red line below. It had an overall gain of 133%.
This phenomenon reflects what we know about the evolution of the internet.
Google already indexes videos from millions of sites.
You can search for videos on the main search result page, video search results pages, Google Images, and Discover.
In March, Google Product Manager Danielle Marshak stated that this type of content could be helpful for many different search queries. She also said she was experimenting with ways to show it more frequently to users.
Losers
The groups with a significant drop in the Sistrix visibility index were called losers.
News and Media Publishers
Steve Paine was the Sistrix Marketing Manager and found that most news and media publishers suffered a loss of traffic among the 30 news websites.
Generalists who write about everything were most affected by the loss.
As you can see, independent.co.uk is getting a boost for its topic directory, while dailymail.co.uk (no subject landing pages) sinks.
Malte Landwehr explained that Google knows that you might not have the most recent news about the Knicks. However, this does not necessarily mean you are the answer to people searching for queries like “eyeshadow”…
Reference Sites
The losers were reference websites, including Wikipedia-knockoffs and lyrics sites, as well as stock photo sites.
Landwehr explained that these pages (references pages) could be considered “backfill” for Google.
A definition page might seem relevant based on TF–IDF, Word2Vec, or similar approaches. However, they seldom match the search intent.
Marcus Tober’s research shows that informational keywords exhibit 54% volatility.
New SERP Features
You may have seen richer results for transactional queries within the SERP in a visual grid format.
It appears like thumbnails of product images. Clicking on a product will open a knowledge panel with shopping options.
The grid format was first seen on mobile in March 2022, and is now available on desktop. It is possible to test it yourself by asking for product queries like “sleepsack” and “paintbrush.”
These new shopping features were available a few days prior to the May 2022 update announcement. However, it is important to mention them as they undoubtedly impact eCom traffic – and you can easily misattribute core updates’ effects.
The Rise of the Visual SERP: What Does This Mean for Marketers
Core updates are improvements made to Google search results to make them more useful and to keep up with changing search habits.
A drop in rankings clearly indicates that your content needs to be updated to meet current search intent.
Here is a summary of the few changes we see
Video Search Results - The New SEO Frontier
Video content is in high demand. Recent research found that 73% of people prefer to watch short videos to learn about a product.
Google is aware of it.
Google already has videos in many places. Marshak made earlier comments about how Google is trying to create video content more visible to users.
Want to learn how Google can find and fetch your video content? These five best video SEO practices are for you.
Visualize Product Information using Rich Snippets
A study of the May core update revealed that transactional (purchase) searches showed 51% volatility.
Schema markup can be used to improve search results for eCommerce websites.
Potential buyers will appreciate the additional information, such as ratings or prices.
More public may click on a search result with a high rating because it offers positive social proof.
Adding structure data on your product pages can create your own product information.
Google Shopping Visual Grid
It is no secret that consumers’ shopping habits have changed dramatically over the past two decades. E-commerce sales increased by 43% between 2010 and 2020.
Searches for transactional queries are conducted by hundreds of millions every day. Google is constantly testing new ways to get products in front of those searching.
We could see products in a visual grid that opens to the knowledge panel. This was spotted a few days before the official Google May 2022 update announcement.
These features can help you grow your business. Check out this episode on the SEJ Show with Duane Brown, an SEJ contributor. It explains how to dominate Google Merchant Center.
