Mayday update (2010): what changed and what it means now

What Google changed#

In early May 2010, webmasters reported sharp drops in traffic from long tail searches, the longer and rarer queries that together make up a large share of many sites’ visits. Google confirmed a change twice that month. At Google I/O, Matt Cutts told a panel: “this is an algorithmic change in Google, looking for higher quality sites to surface for long tail queries,” as quoted by Search Engine Land.

In a Google Webmasters video published on 30 May 2010, Cutts said “it’s an algorithmic change that changes how we assess which sites are the best match for long tail queries,” per Search Engine Land’s transcript. Google also told Search Engine Land it was a rankings change, not a crawling or indexing change.

Google never named it; the SEO industry did. Search Engine Land reported the name came from “those discussing it at Webmaster World,” and Search Engine Roundtable wrote that webmasters codenamed it MAYDAY.

When it rolled out#

Google stated no launch date. Search Engine Roundtable reported on 3 May 2010 that webmasters had noticed the drops “over the past few days.” This page uses 3 May 2010 as the first reliably reported date; the exact start day is approximate. Google stated no completion date, but said the change was fully tested and not temporary.

What is known about its impact#

Google gave no figures for Mayday. Search Engine Land’s analysis suggested it mostly hit very large sites with item pages that attract few links and carry little unique content, such as product pages built from manufacturer data. That is industry analysis, not a Google statement.

What site owners should do#

Google’s ranking systems guide does not list Mayday as a system; its goal, rewarding the most useful page for a specific query, lives on in core ranking. Per Search Engine Land’s summary of the video, Cutts advised affected sites to look at quality, authority and whether the page really helps for the query. Google’s current helpful content guidance says the same:

• Make sure deep pages, such as product and item pages, offer original information, not only copied manufacturer text.
• Check that each page does more than match the query’s words and actually answers it.
• Use Google’s self-assessment questions on originality and completeness for large page sets.

How to check whether it affected you#

This is historical. Search Console keeps 16 months of data, so May 2010 can only be checked in archived analytics, by comparing long tail landing page traffic from April with June 2010. The Google Algorithm Updates timeline lists every update with its dates.

Related updates#

• The Vince update was the previous ranking change Google confirmed on video.
• The Caffeine indexing system was completed weeks later, in June 2010.
• The Panda update took site quality much further in 2011.