Google has today confirmed that “Later today, [they will be] releasing a broad core algorithm update, as [they] do several times per year. It is called the May 2020 Core Update. [Their] guidance about such updates remains as we’ve covered before.”
As of 20:50 GMT Google said the rollout has begun. It can take “about one to two weeks to fully roll out,” Google said.
Whenever Google updates its search ranking algorithms, it means that your site can do better or worse in the search results. Knowing when Google makes these updates gives us something to point to in order to understand if it was something you changed on your web site or something Google changed with its ranking algorithm. Today, we know Google will be releasing a core ranking update, so keep an eye on your analytics and rankings.
The most recent previous core update was the January 2020 core update. The one prior to that was the September 2019 core update. That update felt weaker to many SEOs and webmasters, as many said it didn’t have as big of an impact as previous core updates. Google also released an update in November, but that one was specific to local rankings.
Google has given advice on what to consider if you are negatively impacted by a core update in the past. There aren’t specific actions to take to recover, and in fact, a negative rankings impact may not signal anything is wrong with your pages.