Surviving Google Algorithm Updates

You protect rankings through Google updates by fixing weaknesses before an update finds them, and by reading a drop carefully after one instead of reacting to it. Core updates do not target specific sites; they reassess the web as a whole, so a site that falls usually had pages that were less helpful than the competition. This post covers what to do before and after an update. For the dates and names of past updates, see our history of Google algorithm updates.

What is a Google algorithm update?

Google changes its ranking systems all the time. Most changes are small and never announced. Several times a year it makes broad changes it calls core updates, and it also releases spam updates aimed at practices that break its spam policies. Notable updates are posted on the Google Search Status Dashboard with a start date and, once finished, how long the rollout took. Google's own guidance is that most sites don't need to worry about core updates and may not even notice one.

What should you do before the next update?

The work that protects a site is the same work that makes it rank in the first place. Before an update, we check four things:

Helpfulness, page by page. Go through Google's self-assessment questions for helpful, reliable, people-first content. Does each page show first-hand expertise? Would someone leave feeling they had learned enough to act? Pages written to catch a keyword rather than to help a reader are the ones most exposed.
Spam policy risks. Read Google's spam policies with your own site in mind. The problems we most often find on small business sites are keyword stuffing, near-identical city pages (doorway abuse), bought or swapped links, and large numbers of thin pages produced at scale.
Page experience. Check Core Web Vitals, HTTPS, how the site displays on phones, and whether ads or pop-ups get in the way of the main content. Google says there is no single page experience signal, but its core systems look to reward a good overall experience.
A baseline you can trust. Export Search Console performance data for your top pages and queries regularly, and keep a simple log of site changes with dates. When rankings move, you will know whether the cause was an update, a release on your own site or something else.

Our guide to running an SEO audit walks through these checks in more detail.

How do you tell whether an update affected your site?

Do not judge while an update is still rolling out. Google's advice for core updates is specific:

Confirm on the Search Status Dashboard that the update has finished, and note its start and end dates.
Wait at least a full week after it completes.
In Search Console, compare that week with a week before the update started.
Review your top pages and queries, and look at Web Search, Images, Video and News separately.

Then rule out other causes. Google's guide to traffic drops lists technical issues, security issues, manual actions, seasonality and site moves alongside algorithm updates. Check the Page indexing and Crawl stats reports, the Security issues report and the Manual actions report, and use Google Trends to see whether demand for your main queries fell across the web.

What should you do after a drop?

Google separates two cases. A small drop, such as moving from position 2 to 4, needs no drastic action; it recommends avoiding changes to content that is already performing well. A large drop, such as from position 4 to 29 across many queries, calls for a deeper look:

Assess the site as a whole, not just single pages, against the helpful content questions. Ask someone outside the business to do the same.
Study the pages that lost the most. Search the queries yourself and compare your page honestly with what now ranks above it.
Improve content in meaningful ways: rewrite or restructure it so it is easier to read and use, add the experience and detail that is missing, and correct anything outdated.
Avoid quick fixes, like removing a page element because you heard it is bad for SEO.
Treat deleting content as a last resort. Google says that if you are considering deleting whole sections, that is likely a sign they were made for search engines first; removing them can help the rest of the site.

If you would like a second pair of eyes, our free site audit checks up to 25 pages, and our SEO team can take on the full assessment.

How long does recovery take?

Google says some improvements take effect within days, but it can take several months for its systems to confirm that a site as a whole is producing helpful content over the long term. If nothing has changed after a few months, you may need to wait for the next core update. Smaller, unannounced core updates can also lift a site that has improved. Google is also clear that there is no guarantee any change will bring rankings back, because other pages may simply be more deserving.

Which mistakes make things worse?

Rewriting every page at once, so you cannot tell which change helped.
Publishing many new pages to make up for lost traffic, when thin content was the problem.
Buying links to recover quickly, which can add a spam problem to a quality one.
Chasing a single "factor". Google states that E-E-A-T itself is not a ranking factor; it describes qualities its systems look for through many signals.

Questions people ask about surviving Google updates

What should I do in the week my rankings drop?

Check whether an update is rolling out, look for manual actions and indexing errors in Search Console, and compare which pages and queries lost rather than the site total. Avoid changing everything at once while the update is still in progress.

How long does recovery from a core update take?

Anything from a few days to several months. Google says it can take months for its systems to confirm a site has improved, and that sometimes recovery only shows after the next core update.

Is an algorithm update the same as a penalty?

No. A penalty is a manual action, which appears in Search Console's Manual actions report with a reason, and you can ask for a review once it is fixed. An update re-scores sites automatically, so there is nothing to appeal.

Does publishing more content help after an update?

Not on its own. If weak or repetitive pages were the problem, adding more of them makes it worse. Improving or consolidating the weakest pages usually does more than adding new ones.