What is Google Core Update? What to do if your site is impacted?

What is a Google Core Update & How to Survive and Recover from it

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You don’t necessarily need to be an SEO expert or professional marketer to know that Google has come a long way since its launch in 1998.

With each Google core update, the world’s top search engine has become increasingly smarter over the years, making solid SEO knowledge more important than ever for digital-age businesses that are serious about ranking well.

However, knowing that frequent core updates are a reality of digital life is one thing. Understanding them well enough to adapt to new ones like a champ is another.

Here’s a closer look at everything you need to know to stay ahead of the game.

How to Recover from a Google Core Update

It’s inevitable that pretty much every Google core update will change the game for a decent handful of sites.

If yours happens to be one of them, it’s not the end of the world. There are ways to recover, as well as to be better prepared for the next update.

Here are some things to keep in mind.

1. Avoid panicking

Naturally, when something massive like a major Google algorithm update tanks your hard-earned site rankings, it’s upsetting.

Most people’s knee-jerk reaction is going to be to panic, but it’s important to avoid that.

When people panic, they also overreact, which can easily lead to bad decisions they’ll regret later.

Instead, get together with industry peers. Talk things out with both people who’ve been affected and people who haven’t, so you’ve got a good read on what’s really going on.

2. Get to the bottom of the update’s purpose

Keep in mind that all Google algorithm updates roll out with one cohesive purpose in mind — to improve its user experience by generating better, more accurate search results.

Sometimes such updates are left to users to figure out on their own.

Other times, Google itself will offer additional information as to the focus of the update, so check to see if that’s the case.

For example, the June 2021 update was eventually confirmed as an update meant to address spam.

3. Consult your analytics for more information

No two sites that might be affected by a particular Google core update will necessarily be affected the same way.

So while comparing notes with peers is a great way to get a better idea of what’s changed, you still need to consult your own analytics for personalized answers.

Does your SEO data show you any helpful patterns? Was there a particular page category or type of content that experienced a decline, or did the change appear to affect your entire website?

If the effect was sitewide, it may be an issue best fixed by a stronger focus on quality.

It’s also worth mentioning that sometimes, the data just isn’t going to give you a tidy answer. Traffic dips here, a spike there—it could be seasonality, an industry shift, or even an unrelated technical hiccup from your hosting provider’s end. Honestly, chasing causality in analytics can feel a bit like herding cats. So, while patterns are valuable, don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis. Sometimes the best move is to accept a little ambiguity and keep your broader content and user strategies in motion.

And, of course, don’t forget the importance of timelines when reviewing analytics. If you’re not layering your update-related traffic drop with notes about recent site changes, campaigns, or even holidays, you might be drawing the wrong conclusions. Looking at raw dips in isolation strips away the context that could be driving those changes. It’s not always the update itself—sometimes it’s just bad timing or something totally out of your control. That little reality check saves a lot of pointless stress.

Sometimes, the truth is, you just won’t know exactly why you got hit by an update. People crave clear causes and neat solutions, but Google doesn’t hand out tidy explanations. That shouldn’t stop you from experimenting with changes, though. Test improvements where you suspect a weakness, but give it some time before jumping to another fix. Trusting the process and exercising a bit of patience—as dull as that sounds—usually beats knee-jerk tinkering every time.

It’s also not a bad idea to track notable industry discussion—Twitter/X threads, or places like WebmasterWorld, can sometimes surface insights or shared experiences that give you a sanity check. When you see big ranking drops or gains across a bunch of unrelated categories, it’s a sign you’re not alone, and maybe not the problem either. That crowd-sourced wisdom can be oddly comforting in the middle of analytics chaos.

4. Compare your site with the competition

If landing pages that previously performed really well are no longer ranking the way they once did, then you’ll want to check out the competing pages that are now sitting in those positions.

Remember, algorithm updates don’t affect the number of people using Google or the searches they’re performing, so that traffic is going somewhere.

Take a careful look at those pages.

What are they doing that you’re not? Is their content better than yours in some discernible way? How does their approach to concepts like formatting, imagery, layout, and content production differ from your own?

5. Don’t assume you’re doing something wrong

Sometimes a website owner evaluates their data and does their homework on other sites in their niche in an attempt to figure out what the problem could be only to still come up stumped.

And, really, that could be because there isn’t a problem at all.

Not every update is like Panda in that it includes a penalty for websites engaging in certain practices Google sees as quality issues.

In many cases, it’s less that poor-quality websites are being punished and more that terrific sites or promising newcomers are now receiving greater recognition for what they’re putting out there.

6. Redouble your focus on E-A-T

No matter what a particular Google core update entails, E-A-T — a concept introduced after 2018’s Medic update and covered in detail throughout Google’s quality rater guidelines — will always be something to focus on if you’re serious about achieving and maintaining top SERP rankings.

E-A-T stands for:

Expertise: How well does the content creator know, understand, and discuss the topic at hand?
Authoritativeness: How much of an authority might the creator of this content be? What about the authority ranking of the content and the website where it’s posted?
Trustworthiness: Can Google users trust this content creator, this website, and this particular piece of content?

In other words, there’s really no shortcut here.

The smarter Google becomes, the more the cream tends to rise to the top all on its own. So focus on creating incredible long-form content that’s helpful, readable, and well-written.

The better a resource your website becomes, the more likely it is to come out on top, even after future algorithm updates.

It always pays to focus less on trying to game the system and more on creating incredible content that truly deserves to rank well.

7. Be prepared for future core updates

When it comes to SEO, you can pretty much take it for granted that the next Google core update is just around the corner.

But a little preparedness can go a long way. Beyond staying dedicated to producing quality, user-friendly, good content on an ongoing basis, you should also:

Diversify your traffic, so that you’re not entirely dependent on organic traffic from Google.
Diversify your income stream, as well, so you’re less dependent on ad revenue from your site.
Work on turning your brand into a household name — something so good, that it’s not reliant on search engines to acquire new leads.
Grow yourself a loyal audience that you can also connect with over social media, through email, and so forth.

And if you want a comprehensive overview of the latest update and extra tips on what to do, check out the video below:

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Wrap Up

Any Google core update will always be a big deal to SEO professionals and website owners, and with good reason.

People pour a lot of time, effort, and money into building their websites’ ability to pull in loads of organic traffic. So if something happens to suddenly erase all that, it’s terrifying and frustrating, to say the least.

But it’s not the end of the world. As you can see, it is possible to recover if you’re affected by a particular core update. However, you should still do everything you can to future-proof your site in preparation for potential upcoming changes.