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January 17, 2020

Good morning, the January 2020 core update is almost finished!

Google’s first core update of the year is “mostly done” rolling out. The January 2020 core update launched at noon on Monday and, although it is almost fully implemented, it may take two weeks to complete. Tracking tools from data providers are showing large fluctuations and chatter from the community suggests that SEOs are feeling the impact of this update.

If you’ve been pulling your hair out over a sudden surge in Google Search Console unparsable structured data errors, you may not be at fault. “Some users may see a spike in unparsable structured data errors,” the company wrote in a message dated January 13–16, 2020. “This was due to an internal misconfiguration that will be fixed soon, and can be ignored.” Being that it is now the 17th, it’s a good idea to check and see if those errors are still showing up, as that may indicate that you do have structured data issues to resolve.

Informational content matters — even for e-commerce sites. Keep on reading for a Pro Tip on why, as well as your daily Search Shorts and to find out what we’re reading.

George Nguyen,
Associate Editor

Pro Tip

Here’s why informational content on e-commerce sites matter

“The true value of informational content for e-commerce SEO is often difficult to prove. Some content marketers and SEOs are convinced that informational content can serve as a link-worthy asset that will attract natural links from other websites,” explains Eoghan Henn of searchVIU. “The acquired links are then supposed to help improve the SEO performance of the entire online shop. But how do we isolate factors to demonstrate that it is indeed the informational content that contributes to a website’s overall SEO performance, and not other optimizations and developments? I present a case that supports the theory of informational content helping commercial pages rank better and generate additional sales.”

More from SMX »

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Search Shorts

Google’s January core update is global.

Global update. Like other Google broad core updates, this January 2020 core update is a global release, Danny Sullivan from Google said on Twitter.

Cookie banners. John Mueller of Google confirmed that using cookie acceptance banners should not negatively impact your performance in Google search — that is, if you don’t hide your content with them.

Changed content. Well, if you change your content significantly, we’ll try to reflect that in search when we reprocess the pages — that can mean changes in the organic search features we use to highlight the page, said John Mueller of Google.

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