May 2015 quality update: what changed and what it means now

What Google changed#

Google confirmed the change only through a statement to Search Engine Land. Its 19 May 2015 report says Google told it that “while no spam-related update had happened, there were changes to its core ranking algorithm in terms of how it processes quality signals.” Google would not say how quality was now assessed, and said the update did not go after any particular class of sites or any particular site.

Google never named it. Search Engine Land wrote that “we’re dubbing it the Quality Update” once Google confirmed it. Before that, analyst Glenn Gabe had called it Phantom 2, a sequel to a 2013 update he had named Phantom because it “initially flew under the radar.”

When it rolled out#

Google gave no launch date. Glenn Gabe’s analysis traced significant traffic changes to about 29 April 2015, and Search Engine Land said results had changed “since the beginning of this month,” meaning May 2015. The start date on this page is therefore approximate, taken from the first industry reports. Google stated no completion date.

It landed days after the mobile-friendly update of 21 April 2015. Gabe concluded the two were separate: many of the sites he saw affected were mobile-friendly, and they moved in both desktop and mobile rankings.

What is known about its impact#

Google published no figures for this update. Its only characterization, via Search Engine Land, was that the change was to the overall core ranking algorithm and not aimed at a niche. Traffic percentages quoted for Phantom 2 come from individual consultants’ data sets, not from Google, so this page does not repeat them.

What site owners should do#

There is no separate quality system to recover from. Quality assessment sits inside Google’s core ranking systems, and Google’s current guidance applies:

• Self-assess content against Google’s helpful content questions, including whether it provides original information, reporting, research or analysis.
• Make it clear who created the content and how. Google says trust is the most important part of E-E-A-T.
• Avoid quick fixes. Google’s core update guidance advises against removing page elements just because you heard they were bad for SEO.
• Treat deleting content as a last resort, only for content that cannot be salvaged.

How to check whether it affected you#

This is a historical question. Search Console keeps 16 months of performance data, so it cannot show 2015. Use archived analytics instead: compare organic Google traffic for the week before 29 April 2015 with the last two weeks of May 2015, and separate it from the mobile-friendly update by checking whether desktop traffic moved as well as mobile. The Google Algorithm Updates timeline lists the updates around it.

Related updates#

• The Panda update was Google’s earlier content quality system.
• The mobile-friendly update rolled out the week before.
• The Fred update was the next unnamed quality-related change the industry named.