Core Algorithm, Google’s Biggest Update in 2023
Google has recently updated it Core Algorithm, it can impact search rankings, making it crucial for SEOs and website owners to stay informed and adapt strategies. The update launched on March 15 and completed rollout on March 28, 2023. It targeted all content types within all regions and languages, promoting and rewarding high-quality and high-value web pages. Google’s March 2023 broad core update is set to prioritize the ranking of pages that provide more value compared to those currently ranking on Google. This update may lead to a significant reshuffling of SERP rankings.
Google makes significant changes several times in a year. We refer to these as core updates, and we give notice when they happen on Google search ranking updates. Core updates are designed to ensure that overall, we’re delivering on our mission to present helpful and reliable results for searchers.
How core updates work
There’s nothing wrong with pages that may not be performing as well as they were before a core update. They haven’t violated Google spam policies, nor been subjected to a manual or algorithmic action, as can happen to pages that do violate those policies. In fact, there’s nothing in a core update that targets specific pages or sites. Instead, the changes are about improving how our systems assess content overall. These changes may cause some pages that were previously under-rewarded to do better in search results.
One way to think of how a core update operates is to imagine you made a list of the top 100 movies in 2021. A few years later in 2024, you refresh the list. It’s going to naturally change. Some new and wonderful movies that never existed before will now be candidates for inclusion. You might also reassess some films and realize they deserved a higher place on the list than they had before.
Assess your own content
As explained, pages that experience a change after a core update don’t have anything wrong to fix. That said, we understand that those who may not be performing as well after a core update change may still feel they need to do something.
We suggest focusing on ensuring you’re offering the best content you can. That’s what our algorithms seek to reward. It has questions that you can ask yourself when assessing your own content
Also consider an audit of the drops you may have experienced. What pages were most impacted and for what types of searches? Look closely at these to understand how these pages may perform against the self-assessment questions. For example, there may be other pages that are doing a better job of helping the searcher because they have first-hand knowledge on that topic. You might also have others you trust provide an honest assessment.
Recover from a core update
Broad core updates tend to happen every few months. Content that was impacted in Search or Discover by one might not recover, assuming improvements have been made, until the next broad core update is released.
However, we’re constantly making updates to our search algorithms, including smaller core updates. We don’t announce all of these because they’re generally not widely noticeable. Still, when released, they can cause content to recover if improvements warrant.
Do keep in mind that improvements made by site owners aren’t a guarantee of recovery, nor do pages have any static or guaranteed position in our search results. If there’s more deserving content, that will continue to rank well with our systems.