Google makes big changes to its search system several times each year, and these are called “core updates.” Whenever one of these updates happens, Google posts about it on their Google Search ranking updates list.
For most websites, these updates don’t make much of a difference, and website owners may not notice them. But if you notice a drop in traffic to your website around the time of a major update, this information may help. It explains how basic updates work and gives tips on what you can do to improve your content if necessary.
Why Does Google Make Core Updates?
Let’s say your friend asks you for a list of your favourite restaurants. I made this list back in 2019 with my top 20 picks, but a lot has changed since then. New restaurants opened, and you had more experiences with some places.
You can move some restaurants to the top of the list because you had a good time there recently or even add new ones. If a restaurant goes down, it doesn’t mean it’s bad; It just means there are other places to recommend more now.
This is similar to how a basic update works. Google just rearranges its favorites list to make sure it shows people the most useful results based on what’s new and updated online.
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How to Check if a Core Update Affects Your Website’s Traffic?
The simplest way to check if your website traffic has dropped in Google Search Console, especially if you think a core update might be behind it:
- First, look in Google Search Console to see if your website has dropped in search results. If there’s a drop, and you think the latest core update might be the cause, it’s time to check.
- Go to the Google Search Status dashboard to see when the core update started and ended. Make sure you deploy the entire update before analyzing anything, so you don’t see incomplete results.
- Wait a week after the update ends before diving into your data. Then, compare how your site performed during the week after the update with the week before it started. This way, you can clearly see any changes the update may have caused.
- Check your main pages and search terms to see if their rankings changed. Did they drop just a bit or by a lot?
- Small drop (such as moving from position 2 to 4): No major changes needed. Don’t change content that still works fine.
- Big drop (eg from position 4 to 29): It’s worth doing a deeper dive to see what might need improvement.
- Check if the drop is limited to just one search type, such as regular web search, images, video, or news. This will give you a better idea of where the problem is.
Following these steps can help you figure out if you need to make adjustments or if your rating is likely to stabilize again.
Analyzing Large Drops in Ranking
If you notice that your website ranking has dropped a lot and remains low, it’s time to take a closer look at it. This means checking whether your site overall – not just specific pages – offers useful, trustworthy content that people will actually find useful. Here’s what you can do:
- Try to look at your website as a whole, and be fair with yourself about how it’s doing. It can also help to ask a friend or someone you trust (who isn’t connected to your site) to review it with fresh eyes.
- Focus on the pages that had the biggest drops. Try to figure out if these pages might not be as useful or as good at answering people’s questions as similar pages on other websites.
- Other pages on the internet might be doing a better job at helping people find what they need. Look at what they’re doing right and see if you can improve your pages to do the same.
Important Tips When Making Changes
When making changes to your website, here are some important things to keep in mind:
- Don’t just remove things because you heard they might hurt your SEO (like taking away some page features). Instead, focus on making changes that are good for your visitors and will work well in the long run.
- Think about ways to make your content better for your audience. For example, you could rewrite or reorganize your content to make it easier for people to read and understand.
- Only delete content if you really believe it can’t be saved. If you’re thinking about deleting a whole section of your site, it might be because it was created just for search engines, not for people. In this case, removing the unnecessary content can help the useful content on your site do better.
How Long It Takes to See Changes in Search Rankings?
It may take some time to see changes in search results after improvements are made. Some changes may appear in just a few days, but it may take several months for Google to notice that your entire website is now creating useful, authoritative, people-focused content. If it’s been a few months and you still don’t see any improvement, it may mean that you’ll have to wait for the next big update from Google to see the changes.
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