Google Core Algorithm Updates

Google's core updates are significant, broad changes to its search algorithms and systems. Google explains that they happen several times a year and don't target specific sites or individual web pages. A second important phrase from the same page: most sites don't need to worry about core updates and may not even realize one has happened. If traffic changed at the same time as an update, you need a procedure. It is below: how to confirm the update has finished, which dates to compare, how to judge the size of a drop and what not to do.

The basis is Google's page on core updates and your website and the list of ranking updates. A general analysis of traffic drops is in the lesson on traffic drops.

How it works

Core updates are designed to ensure that overall Google is delivering on its mission to present helpful and reliable results for searchers. As content on the web changes, Google assesses and updates its systems to keep pace. The image from the documentation: a friend asks for your top food recommendations; your list of 20 favorite restaurants was written in 2019, new ones have opened since, and you reassess old ones. The list changes, and restaurants that move down aren't necessarily "bad": there are just other restaurants that make the top 20. Two consequences follow:

• a drop after a core update is not necessarily a punishment for a mistake;
• a rise is possible too: the positions of other sites change in the same way. The ranking systems are described in the guide to ranking systems; helpful content, once assessed by a separate system, became part of the core systems.

Do not confuse core updates with other causes of drops: security issues, spam, technical errors and seasonality. They are described in the guide to debugging traffic drops.

How to check a drop in Search Console

1. Confirm the update has finished. Open the Google Search Status Dashboard and note the start and end dates;
2. Compare the right dates. Google recommends waiting at least a full week after the update completes and then comparing that week with the week before the rollout started;
3. Review your top pages and queries before and after: is the drop small or large;
4. Analyze search types separately. Web, images, video and news separately: this shows where exactly the drop happened.

To compare two windows our update monitor overlays update dates on Search Console clicks, and the period comparison shows winning and losing pages.

A small and a large drop

If the drop is large and sustained

For a sustained, large drop across the site Google suggests going through the self-assessment: is the site as a whole (not just individual pages) delivering helpful, reliable, people-first content. Specifically:

• take a close look at the site as a whole and try to be objective; you can ask trusted people unaffiliated with the site to go through the same questions;
• evaluate the most impacted pages against the self-assessment questions: there may be other pages on the web doing a better job of helping the searcher. The main questions are covered in the lessons on content uniqueness and depth, helpful content and E-E-A-T signals.

What to do when making changes, and what not to

On deletion Google is direct: it is a last resort, only if you think the content can't be salvaged. If you are considering deleting entire sections of your site, that is likely a sign those sections were created for search engines first and not people. In that case deleting the unhelpful content can help the good content perform better. But do not start with deletion.

How long to wait for a result

Before waiting for a "rollback", consider the documentation's words: some changes can take effect in a few days, but it could take several months for the systems to confirm that the site as a whole is now producing helpful, reliable, people-first content in the long term. If it has been a few months and there is no effect, that could mean waiting until the next core update. But you don't necessarily have to wait for that one: Google continually makes updates, including smaller core updates that are not announced because they aren't widely noticeable, and they too can raise positions after improvements. And a last caveat: there is no guarantee of a noticeable effect, and positions are not fixed.

What is not in the documentation

• An exact number of updates a year: it says "several times a year";
• A claim that recovery is possible only after the next update;
• A promise that E-E-A-T "signals" can be improved to bring positions back: Google calls E-E-A-T a set of aspects, not a separate factor;
• Specific percentages of a drop or a rise.

Checklist

1. The start and end dates of the update are known from the status dashboard.
2. A full week has passed since the end, and the weeks before and after are compared.
3. Search types are analyzed separately.
4. The scale is judged: a small drop calls for no action.
5. For a large drop the self-assessment is done across the whole site.
6. Changes make sense for users and are not "quick fixes".
7. Deleting content is considered last.
8. Results are judged over months, not weeks.

Mistakes

• Analyzing data before the update has finished.
• Treating a drop as a penalty and urgently deleting pages.
• Changing content that is already working.
• Waiting only for the next big update without improving anything.
• Confusing a core update with a security, spam or technical problem.

What comes next

Next is the lesson on helpful content, and for step-by-step analysis of dips see traffic drops. For reporting see the lesson on SEO KPIs, and for how to read the report see the lesson on Search Console.