Google Rolled out March 2023 Core Update

Google announced the much-awaited March 2023 core update on March 15, which came six months after the September Core Update. This core update, which lasted for 13 days and 7 hours, was highly anticipated due to the substantial changes that have impacted organic search in recent times. Some of these changes include the Helpful Content Update, several Product Reviews Updates, and most importantly, the growing popularity of generative AI tools. Google’s new Search Status Dashboard provides detailed information about the duration of the update.

All brands, businesses, and organizations need to stay informed about Google algorithm updates since they can affect your website’s performance in search results. A core update, whether it leads to a positive or negative change in rankings, can have an impact on your organic traffic, conversions, and revenue.

Being aware of the timing of these updates allows you to determine if any changes on your website are responsible for the shift in rankings, or if it was due to alterations in Google’s ranking algorithm. This is your moment to delve into your analytics and assess which changes you may need to enhance your pages and content.

To jog your memory, the last major core update occurred in September 2022 and had a lesser impact than previous updates. However, the current update is more significant, so it’s important to anticipate potential changes in search rankings for expert SEO service providers.

What is Google March 2023 Core Update?

Google frequently updates its search algorithms, with updates occurring almost daily, as per Google’s statement. However, occasionally significant changes are made to the algorithms, which are referred to as “broad core updates.”

The March 2023 broad core update from Google will prioritize pages that offer greater value compared to the current top-ranked pages. As a result, there could be a significant reorganization of search engine results.

Google’s latest core update will aim to boost the rankings of high-quality or high-value web pages across all content types, regions, and languages. Google has clarified that this update is not designed to specifically target any particular pages or websites.

Here is what we currently know about Google March 2023 Core Update:

It was released on March 15^th,
It was completely rolled out on March 28^th,
The target of this core update is all types of content.
Google March 2023 Core Update will impact all regions and sites across the globe.
This update enforces no penalty, it only promotes or rewards good web pages.
Google did not disclose the exact percentage of search queries affected by this update, but it appears to be a standard core update that has a broad reach and quickly impacts search results.
The March 2023 Core Update will impact every feature of Google.
In order to avoid the hit of this update, maybe SEO service providers need to examine their content and how they can make it better.

What to Do About this Core Update?

As an expert SEO service provider, one way to manage a core update is to stay informed about the changes and adjust your SEO strategy accordingly. Although there may be a lot of speculation and fluctuations in tracking tools, it’s important to avoid making hasty conclusions about the update. For lawyers and legal marketers, it’s especially important to monitor changes and adapt your SEO approach as necessary. It’s worth noting that Google typically asserts that core updates are designed to enhance their content evaluation system and that there isn’t much that can be done to directly influence rankings.

How to Bounce Back from Google March 2023 Core Update?

For a considerable period, Google has kept it unclear on how to bounce back from a comprehensive core algorithm update. They have suggested that it may not be worth attempting to recover, at least until the next update is implemented.

Previously, their support documents regarding core updates directly mentioned that there was no need to fix anything if a page’s ranking dropped after an update.

Here are a few steps which can help you recover from this update.

1. It’s Temporary

Many of the initial changes in search engine rankings during a broad core update may not be permanent. If you’re fortunate, your website traffic may return to its previous level within a few weeks, or even improve. Therefore, it’s risky to make major alterations to your website during a broad core update as it could harm aspects of your content that Google deems favorable. It’s better to not be hasty and wait until you’re certain that the core update has finished and your website has been negatively impacted before making any changes.

2. Relevance of Pages

Essentially, this explains why the content on the list of “problem pages” that you have created has been demoted to lower positions in search results: it is now considered less relevant and authoritative compared to your competitors’ content. You can check the relevance by keeping your page up to date and you are covering appropriate topics in detail. You can also create relevant new content.

3. Reevaluate your Technical SEO

As an SEO service provider, to ensure successful recovery from any core update, it is advisable to tackle critical technical SEO problems that are having an adverse impact on the user experience. You can start with the basics such as improving page load time, navigation structure, internal and external links, headlines and meta descriptions, and Core Web Vitals scores.

The Bottom Line

Google’s March 2023 Core Update aims to improve how the search engine’s systems assess content overall, with a focus on promoting high-quality web pages. Although there is little information available on this update, it may cause some disruption to the expert SEO service providers. However, the full impact of the update is yet to be seen, and it may take some time for webmasters and marketers to understand how it affects their websites. As always, it is best to focus on creating high-quality content that provides value to users, rather than relying on shortcuts or manipulative tactics.