The Google March 2019 Core Update was the first big update since the Medic update and the September 2018 update. SEOs noticed fluctuations and a big impact on many website categories.
Don’t panic: we have compiled some findings and theories from the most reliable SEO experts!
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Barry Schwartz – CEO of RustyBrick
What does Google say? Barry asked Google about this update and it was not the biggest one that Google has released. Google also said that they are constantly improving their algorithms and “build forward to improve.” Plus, they confirmed that this wasn’t a Penguin update but rather a core update and that core updates are unrelated to neural matching updates.
Barry’s survey shows that 57,7% of websites recovered from a previous core update with this one from March 12.
Danny Sullivan – Google’s Public Search Liaison
The famous Florida Update of 2003 has nothing to do with this March core update.
John Mueller – Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google
During a Google Webmaster Hangout, John Mueller explained that Google can sometimes go too far with an update and needs to pull it back. It can also happens that Google doesn’t go as far as they should, so they strengthen their algorithms. So, the March core update could be a recovery from or an intensification of a previous update.
Glenn Gabe – Digital Marketing Consultant at G-Squared Interactive
Many sites which were impacted by the Medic update saw a change in direction but according to Glenn Gabe’s findings, the March 12 update IS NOT a complete reversal of Medic.
Google might have softened some of the algorithms it used in the August update.
Glenn thinks that the March 12 update could be an adjustment to the algorithms that are used to evaluate E-A-T. Google can use links to evaluate E-A-T and explained that when it detects YMYL queries, it can give E-A-T more weight.
Marie Haynes – Owner of Marie Haynes Consulting
Marie published several stories of recovery following this update. She found that a large number of sites that made changes based on clues found in Google’s Quality Raters’ Guidelines saw some type of gains in traffic from Google.
If your traffic dropped on March 12, Marie believes that, as long as you offer good, unique value, recovery really should be possible.
Marie anticipates that there will be plenty more changes to Google’s attempts to algorithmically assess quality, as already seen on either March 18 or between the 20th to 24th.
Search Engine Land – What are you seeing? Help us analyze Google’s March 2019 core algorithm update
Search engine Land – Google’s March 2019 core quality update: Stories of recovery
The web master – “March 2019 Core Update” – Major Google Update March 12, 2019
