E-A-T - December 2020 Google Core Update
As early as December 1, 2020, many webmasters began to report significant changes in their website’s organic Google traffic. Thousands of website owners did not realize why their organic traffic dropped by as much as 70% overnight. On December 3, 2020, Google Search Liaison officially announced that Google has launched the next major algorithm core update called the “December 2020 Core Update”.
What is the December 2020 Google Core Update?
Before we answer that question, lets take a step back. Understand that Google’s ultimate goal is to provide a great user experience for their users. They continuously make 100s of updates each year to their search engine algorithm to make that happen.
The December 2020 Google Core update was a significant update and it is primarily focused on E-A-T.
E stands for Expertise – Does the author / creator of the article have expertise in the area and topic?
A stands for Authority– Is the author / creator of the article an Authority in the industry?
T stands for Trustworthiness – Is the source a Trustworthy source?
Other considerations you should ask is:
- Is the content free from grammatical errors?
- Is the information accurate?
- Is the content written well?
- Does the content have many ads that distract the user?
- Is the user experience good on mobile and desktop?
How to see if you have been impacted by Google’s Core December 2020 Update?
1. If you have not done so, make sure that you sign up for Google Search Console. This is a free tool offered by google that will give you insights on your organic search traffic, will let you know if their are issues and will provide insights on how to fix them.
2. Once you have logged in, make sure to click on “performance”
3. Then make sure the date range is set to 11/1/2020 – January 1/1/2021.
You can use this same strategy to test for other Google Search Core updates.
What to do if you were impacted by the December 2020 Google Core Update?
Go to Google Search Console and check the overview tab, performance tab, coverage tab and the core web visit tabs
Overview Tab – This will provide you a quick snapshot of your website. Look for trends and see if you see any abnormal findings. This can verify if you were impacted by the December 2020 update or any other update.
Performance Tab – In this tab, you will see total clicks, total impressions, average Click through rate and average positions. You will also be able to see the queries that drove visitors to your website, what position your queries show up in the search results, the pages that are performing well, search appearances and so much more.
Go through your pages and see which ones were impacted the most
Coverage tab – will provide you with errors and issues. Make sure to keep Google happy.
Core Web Vitals – This will provide you a quick overview of your mobile and desktop. Open reports and look for issues including poor urls. Do not ignore these reports generated by the Google Search Console
Additional Resources On E-A-T
Listed below are some additional resources provided by Google that discuss E-A-T.
Google’s General Guidelines – Although this is a general document it provides great detail on E A T and Google quality best practices.
What webmasters should know about Google’s Core update – Google’s Search Central Blog Post on core updates.
Has your website been impacted by a Core update? We can help you
Google December 2020 Core Update Conclusion
Organic SEO is a great way to earn free traffic to your website and can give you the highest return on your investment. Make sure you provide a good user experience and provide value to your visitors. Establish yourself as the expert and as an authority in your industry, and be a source search engines can trust.
Were you impacted by the Google December 2020 Core update? If so, please comment and provide details here.