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March 5, 2024 Confirmed

March 2024 Core Update

Google rolled out the March 2024 Core Update on March 5, 2024. Unlike previous core updates, this one involves updates to multiple core systems and is expected to last a month.

Google announces March 2024 Core Update

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February 7, 2024 Unconfirmed

Unconfirmed Search Ranking Algorithm Update (Feb 2024)

Google may have released an update to its search ranking algorithm on February 7 and 8, 2024. Several search ranking tracking tools recorded volatilities on both days, and SEOs observed movements in their search traffic. However, the increased traffic is mostly spam and from outside the US.

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January 4, 2024 Unconfirmed

Unconfirmed Local Ranking Algorithm Update (Jan 2024)

Google may have released an update to its local ranking algorithm on January 4 and 9, 2024. BrightLocal’s Local RankFlux tool shows the volatility in local search traffic on both days. Local SEOs also reported massive changes in their client’s rankings on January 4, 2024.

That said, it is unclear whether these updates are linked to Google’s openness update. On December 15, 2023, Google confirmed it now considers a store’s opening hours a strong signal for non-navigational search queries. This confirmation came after SEOs noticed businesses vanished from local search results when they were not open.

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December 22, 2023 Unconfirmed

Unconfirmed Search Ranking Algorithm Update (Dec 2023)

Google may have released an update to its search ranking algorithm, and multiple SERP tracking tools have recorded volatilities on search results pages between December 22 and 24, 2023. Many site owners complained of massive drops in traffic, while others reported a slight increase in traffic. 

However, it remains unclear whether this volatility resulted from an unconfirmed algorithm update or a combination of the usual traffic drop experienced around Christmas and the Google indexing issue of December 21, 2023.

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November 15, 2023 Confirmed

Hidden Gems Ranking Algorithm Update

In its latest blog post, Google announced the Hidden Gems Ranking Algorithm update that started rolling out several months ago but only revealed for the first time now.

This update will allow helpful, personal, first-hand user-generated content posted on blogs, online forums, and social media sites to be displayed in search results.

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November 2, 2023 Confirmed

November 2023 Core Update

Google announced the rollout of November 2023 Core Update on November 2, 2023. The update was completed on November 28, 2023.

This is the fourth core update Google has released in 2023 and exactly two weeks after the October 2023 Core Update, which ran from October 5 to 19, 2023. 

November 2023 core update - Search Incident

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October 5, 2023 Confirmed

October 2023 Core Update

Google released a core update to its search ranking algorithm on October 5, 2023. The update lasted two weeks and was completed on October 19, 2023. 

This was the third core update Google released in 2023. It is crucial to note that the update ran alongside the October 2023 Spam Update, which was released a day earlier on October 4, 2023.  

October 2023 core update

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October 4, 2023 Confirmed

October 2023 Spam Update

Google rolled out an update to its spam detection system on October 4, 2023. The update took 15 days to roll out and was completed on October 20, 2023. With this update, Google aimed to reduce the visible spam in search results, particularly cloaking, hacked, auto-generated, and scraped spam.

Though the update applied globally, it was expected to improve the coverage in Turkish, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Hindi, Chinese, and other languages.

October 2023 Spam Update

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August 22, 2023 Confirmed

August 2023 Core Update

Google released a core update to its search ranking algorithm on August 22, 2023, and completed rolling out on September 7, 2023.

The effect of the August 2023 core update on search results is mixed. Similar to the previous updates, we expect severe fluctuations and volatility over this period.

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July 14, 2023 Unconfirmed

Unconfirmed Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update (July 2023)

Google might have rolled out another unconfirmed update to its search algorithm. The fluctuations from this update is so extreme that several SERP tracking tools displayed figures they had never shown before.

Several SEOs and site owners reported a 70 – 80% drop in Google traffic. Some sites even disappeared from SERPs entirely. Other webmasters pointed out a massive drop in traffic from the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.

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June 28, 2023 Unconfirmed

Unconfirmed Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update (28th & 29th June 2023)

Several SERP tracking tools indicate that Google might have updated its search ranking algorithm. While Google has not confirmed the update, many SEOs reported a serious drop in search traffic between June 28 and 29, 2023.

The SEO space is surprisingly quiet for an update of this magnitude. As someone suggested, SEOs might have missed the unconfirmed update because of the switch from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4 (GA4).

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June 14, 2023 Unconfirmed

Unconfirmed Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update (14th June 2023)

Google may have recently updated its search ranking algorithm. The result of this unconfirmed update was evident on June 14, 2023, when several SEOs reported spikes in their Google rankings.

Unlike previous unconfirmed updates where SEOs reported drops in their traffic, they even reported increased traffic from Google. Some even noticed 200% more traffic than usual.

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May 10, 2023 Unconfirmed

Unconfirmed Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update (10th & 11th May 2023)

Google might have rolled out an update to its search ranking algorithm between May 10, 2023, and May 11, 2023. On both days, several website tracking tools detected unusual spikes in the rankings of the websites they were monitoring.

SEOs and webmasters noted significant drops in their traffic, especially those originating from the US. Some SEOs and webmasters also reported traffic drops in sites unaffected by previous updates. However, since Google did not officially announce the May 10 and 11, 2023 update, its intent remains unclear.

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May 1, 2023 Unconfirmed

Unconfirmed Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update (1st & 2nd May 2023)

Google may have recently launched an update to its search ranking algorithm. The effect of the update was evident on May 1, 2023, but became more noticeable on May 2, 2023, when many SEOs reported spikes in their traffic and conversions.

Several SEOs have reported a sharp drop in traffic, followed by an increase and another drop. Others have indicated zero drops but lesser conversions. While the details remain unclear, there are suggestions that this unconfirmed update be linked to the confirmed April 2023 Reviews Update.

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April 12, 2023 Confirmed

April 2023 Reviews Update

Google announced another update to its reviews system. The April 2023 Reviews update started rolling out on 12th April 2023 and was completed on 25th April 2023.

Reviews Update

Google has broadened the scope of its review updates to cover product reviews and reviews on services, destinations, and other reviewable topics.

The update focuses on rewarding sites that publish high-quality review content that is insightful and demonstrate experience and expertise.

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March 15, 2023 Confirmed

March 2023 Core Algorithm Update

Google announced a core update to its search ranking algorithm on March 15, 2023 and was completed on March 28, 2023. Google also updated it on their search ranking updates list page. This is after six months since the last core update in September 2022

Search Ranking Page

Several SERP tracking tools captured fluctuations and volatility in search results before and after the update finished rolling out. Additionally, some SEO professionals noticed the turbulence in the search results.

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February 21, 2023 Confirmed

February 2023 Product Reviews Update

Google announced its sixth product review system update on February 21, 2023. This update is known as the February 2023 product reviews update and was completed on March 7, 2023.

Product Review Update

The update applies to English sites and global languages like Spanish, German, French, Italian, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, and Polish. 

Google launched the update to reward sites that offer original and insightful product review content.

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February 13, 2023 Unconfirmed

Unconfirmed Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update–February 13th and 14th, 2023

Google may have recently launched another unconfirmed update to its search ranking algorithm. The update was noticeable as early as February 13th, 2023, just a few days after unconfirmed updates on February 4th and 8th.

Several SERP tracking tools have confirmed fluctuations and volatility in search results. Also, some SEOs have confirmed traffic spikes and movements on their websites.

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December 14, 2022 Confirmed

December 2022 Link Spam Update

Google announced an update to its spam detection system called the December 2022 Link Spam Update. The update took 29 days to roll out, starting on December 14, 2022, and ending on January 12, 2023.

This update leverages what Google calls SpamBrain to neutralize the impact of unnatural links on search results, find purchased links, and detect domains primarily used to pass links to other sites.

Link Spam Update

 

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December 5, 2022 Confirmed

December 2022 Helpful Content Update

Google confirmed another release of helpful content update on Dec. 5, 2022, and the rollout was completed on January 12, 2023.

The December 2022 helpful content update improves on the helpful content system Google introduced in August. This update adds new signals, most notably expanding its use to include content in all languages worldwide—it is no longer limited to English.

Helpful Content Update

 

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