Google released nine confirmed algorithm updates in 2023, as well as a new AI search engine, the Search Generative Experience.
In 2022 and 2021, Google had 10 confirmed algorithm updates. Unless Google releases a new update this week, Google would have released one less update in 2023 than in 2022 and 2021.
Google has confirmed the algorithm update summary
We’ve put together this timeline documenting all confirmed Google search algorithm updates in 2023, so you can view updates throughout the year.
Four core Google updates in 2023
Google had four core updates in 2023, compared to just two in 2022. We had core updates in March, August, October, and November.
Core Update March 2023. The Google March 2023 Core Update started rolling out on March 15th, took 13 days to complete, and ended on March 28th. Overall, volatility was about the same as previous core updates according to some data providers.
Here’s a chart we shared back then comparing that volatility:
Core Update August 2023. Google’s August 2023 Core Update started rolling out on August 22, took 16 days to complete, and ended on September 7. Overall, volatility was generally lower than previous updates, being more muted than we expected according to data providers.
Here’s a chart we shared back then comparing that volatility:
Core Update October 2023. Google’s October 2023 Core Update started rolling out on October 5th, took 14 days to complete, and ended on October 19th. Overall, volatility was hard to gauge because it overlapped with the October spam update, but volatility was felt in a big way, according to several data providers.
Here’s a chart we shared back then comparing that volatility:
November 2023 core update. Google’s November 2023 Core Update started rolling out on November 2, took 26 days to complete, and ended on November 19. Overall, volatility was even greater than the October spam update, according to data providers. But this update also overlapped with the November review update.
Here’s a chart we shared back then comparing that volatility:
Product review update to review update
Google renamed the Product Review Update to the Review Update. This is because Google now looks at all types of review-related content, not just product review content.
We’ve had three review updates this year. The November 2023 review update is the last such update to be confirmed in the future, Google said.
February 2023 product review update. The February 2023 Google Product Reviews Update started on February 21st, took 14 days to complete, and ended on March 7th. Overall, volatility showed that the update was more significant than previous product review updates, according to some data providers. Also, this was the last product review update before it was renamed review update.
Here’s a chart we shared back then comparing that volatility:
April 2023 review update. Now moving into the realm of review updates with the April 2023 Google Reviews Update, it started on April 12th and took 13 days to roll out and was completed on April 25th . Again, this update went beyond product reviews and included services and businesses, destinations. , media and other review content. Overall, the volatility was more widespread than previous updates, simply because it affected more categories of review content.
Here’s a chart we shared back then comparing that volatility:
November 2023 review update. Now moving into the realm of review updates with the November 2023 Google Reviews Update, it started on November 8th and took 29 days to roll out, completing on December 7th. Again, this update went beyond product reviews and included services and companies. , destinations, media and other review content. I was unable to obtain data comparing the volatility of this update to previous ones because the November core update overlapped with this update and the data was too messy to separate.
Useful content update that shook the industry
Google’s September 2023 Useful Content Update started on September 14th and took 14 days to roll out, ending on September 28th. Although we only had one useful content update in 2023, this update was a big one. In fact, SEOs are still talking about this update today and the impact it had on their businesses and clients.
Volatility was very high, especially if you zoomed in on the SEO chatter (what the SEO forums were saying). It looked like this was the useful content update we were hoping Google would release in 2022, but never did.
I think this update was felt more in the niche of the SEO industry, perhaps sites designed to rank well in search engines, rather than the typical sites that consider more than just search engines.
Here’s a chart we shared back then comparing that volatility:
A spam update in the middle
And we had a spam update in the middle of all these updates, the October 2023 spam update. This spam update started on October 4th and lasted for 15 days and ended on the 20th October Yes, this update overlapped with the October 2023 core update, making it almost impossible to track the volatility of that specific update.
Google said the October 2023 spam update “aims to clean up various types of spam that our community members reported in Turkish, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Hindi, Chinese, and other languages.” Google added that the update should “reduce visible spam in search results, especially when it comes to cloaking, hacking, auto-spawning and spam.”
Other Google algorithm changes, updates, tweaks or themes
In May, Google told us about a topic authority system it uses to improve news content. It wasn’t a new algorithm system, Google just hadn’t discussed it before. Google released an update, outside of the useful content update, to reward hidden gems. Perhaps it was published in the most personalized Google search experience. In November, Google adjusted its local ranking algorithm to strengthen the “openness signal” for non-browsing queries. From October 5th to October 31st, Google had a bug with its core update that affected traffic related to Discover. In September, Google updated its language matching system. Google told us: “Over the past few months, we’ve also released a number of updates to improve our language matching systems, including the latest update about two weeks ago. Collectively, they should make results match better with the language someone is searching in, while allowing for the flexibility needed by multilingual searchers to access results in multiple languages.” Google dropped much of the help documentation for its ranking systems, but said that while page experience isn’t a ranking system, it’s still a signal. Google also updated its search quality ranking guidelines on November 16 to focus more on user intent and making search results meet user expectations. Google also relaunched its Ranking Updates page in March to improve tracking.
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