Last week, on May 26th, Google released the long awaited Google May 2022 core update. The update really kicked into high gear quickly, with a ton of volatility noticed within 24-hours after it was formally launched. In my opinion, this update was one of the bigger core updates or Google algorithm updates we've seen in some time - at least in terms of the SEO impact.
Let me share the quick facts, in case you missed it in the first story and then I'll share some of what the SEO community has seen with this update:
Google May 2022 Broad Core Update Quick Facts
Here are the most important things that we know right now in short form:
Name: Google May 2022 Broad Core Update
Launched: May 25, 2022 at around 11:30pm ET
Rollout: It will take about one to two weeks to roll out
Targets: It looks at all types of content
Penalty: It is not a penalty, it promotes or rewards great web pages
Global: This is a global update impacting all regions, in all languages.
Impact: Google would not tell me what percentage of queries or searches were impacted by this update.
Discover: Core updates impact Google Discover and other features, also feature snippets and more.
Recover: If you were hit by this, then you will need to look at your content and see if you can do better with Google's core update advice.
Refreshes: Google will do periodic refreshes to this algorithm but may not communicate those updates in the future. Maybe this is what we saw the past couple of weeks or all those unconfirmed Google updates.
SEO Impact: Community Chatter on May 2022 Core Update
Like I said above, this core update was felt in a big way by the SEO community. We saw the early chatter in our first story, but the chatter really has not slowed at all. I will share some, just a sampling, of what the SEO community has shared within the SEO forums and on SEO twitter below. Keep in mind, there are about 200 comments on my core update story - that is a huge huge number. The May 16th update has about 170 comments and then an additional 100+ comments on the follow up to the May 16th tremors story, which is also huge, but many thought that was a core update, without Google confirming that. So there is tons of chatter within this site as well.
I also wrote a more data centric piece based on data from Semrush and RankRanger and posted it on Search Engine Land. This piece here is more individual stories from SEOs and site owners.
Also, keep in mind, Memorial Day weekend was this past weekend, so that might lead to declines in overall traffic.
Let's start with WebmasterWorld to respect our elders. This is picking up where I left off in my original story:
