{"id":19270,"date":"2022-10-20T15:25:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-20T15:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nobraineragency.com\/seo\/https-www-nobraineragency-co-uk-blog-blog-what-to-do-hit-by-search-engine-core-update\/"},"modified":"2025-02-24T16:59:24","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T16:59:24","slug":"what-to-do-hit-by-search-engine-core-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobraineragency.com\/seo\/what-to-do-hit-by-search-engine-core-update\/","title":{"rendered":"What to do if your website is hit by a search engine core update"},"content":{"rendered":"

All search engines regularly update their algorithm as they constantly strive to deliver more relevant and closely matched results to user searches. Google alone makes thousands of changes to their algorithm every year. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Many of these updates are small and are unlikely to have a big impact on a website\u2019s rankings or general visibility in the SERPs, but every so often, search engines might introduce a core update that makes a noticeable negative difference to your organic results. These usually occur around 3-4 times a year.<\/p>\n

This can work both ways, of course. Some websites will see organic traffic and visibility dip when others will see improved performance after a core update.<\/p>\n

In this article, we look at how you can find out if your site has been negatively impacted by a core update and, if so, what you can do about it to try and recover any lost performance.<\/p>\n

How to know if you\u2019ve been affected by a search engine update<\/h2>\n

If your website traffic has ever dropped off a cliff overnight for seemingly no reason, especially if narrowed down to traffic from one specific search engine (check your site analytics data), there is a strong possibility that you might have been affected by an update to the search engine algorithm.<\/p>\n

It might not be as dramatic as this. Your organic traffic may not completely tank, but you might notice that over time, search engine traffic is down somewhat to what you’d expect and there might be other indications that things have changed e.g. rankings that you track may have fallen and reported impressions and clicks may have dropped in Google Search Console.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to look at whether the drop you have experienced is site-wide (i.e. affects the website as a whole) or is limited to certain pages on your site. This can give you strong clues as to whether it\u2019s due to a particular search engine update (if the dates match up between update roll-out and your changes in performance) and this will also help to indicate what action you might need to take.<\/p>\n

How to find out which core search engine update has affected your website<\/h2>\n

If you\u2019ve already narrowed the issue down to one specific search engine e.g. Google or Bing, and you have a good idea of when your site started to be affected, you can usually work out which specific update has made the difference.<\/p>\n

Google usually announce upcoming major updates via their blog<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>, although there isn\u2019t always a huge amount of time between announcements and roll out. However, it can help businesses know to be on the lookout for any changes in performance.<\/p>\n

Google report the completed search ranking updates they make here<\/a>, and Bing usually talk about updates on their search blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also usually a good idea to follow social media posts and conversations from the people at Google who usually communicate on these topics, such as Google\u2019s public liaison for search, Danny Sullivan<\/a>, and Google search advocate, John Mueller<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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From new reports in Search Console to ranking recommendations for content creators, @JohnMu<\/a> covers the latest news happening in Google Search.<\/p>\n

Tune in to this month’s episode https:\/\/t.co\/L5OtoK4bx0<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/jZPBySuhzP<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) September 28, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n