Considering the rapid succession of updates over the past few months, it has clearly been a full year for Google and SEOs alike. The Helpful Content Update came hot on the heels of the August 2023 Core Update. These, in turn, were subsequently followed by the almost simultaneous rollout of the Core and Spam updates in October. This resulted in some volatility in the SERPs and a whole lot of chatter.
With so much going on, staying informed about Google updates is an important part of the industry. As such, we hope that this recap will help you keep up with the current Google guidelines as you prepare your 2024 SEO strategy.
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Google 2023 Updates
As 2023 comes to a close, let’s take a look at the Google updates that kept the SEO industry on its toes. With multiple Core Updates and even a new Helpful Content Update, there was a lot to keep track of.
February 2023 Product Reviews Update
Feb. 21
The first update of the year applied to 11 languages and came with an update to the existing Product Reviews update guidance.
March 2023 Broad Core Update
Mar. 15
This was the first broad core update of 2023; it came 6 months after the previous core update.
April 2023 Review Update
Apr. 12
An update regarding reviews about products, services, destinations, games, movies, etc.
August 2023 Broad Core Update
Aug. 22
The second core update of the year took 16 days to roll out. Looking at peak volatility, this update was more powerful than the March update.
Google Reveals Update to Language Matching Systems
Sept. 8
Google confirmed they released a language matching systems update about two weeks ago that improves how they match languages in search.
September 2023 Helpful Content Update
Sept. 14
This algorithm update focused on Google’s “improved classifier” that better identifies helpful content.
October 2023 Spam Update
Oct. 4
This update improved Google’s coverage in many languages and regarding many spam types.
October 2023 Broad Core Update
Oct. 5
The third core update of the year took 14 days to roll out. A number of sites cited ranking volatility.
November 2023 Broad Core Update
Nov. 2
According to Google, this update comes so soon after the previous one because it involves an improvement to a different core system.
November 2023 Reviews Update
Nov. 8
This update will be the last standalone update. From now on, the update will regularly evaluate reviews without any future announcements.
