Google Claims Recovery from Core Updates Possible Without Awaiting Another Core Update

Last Friday, John Mueller of Google mentioned in a webmaster hangout video that if your site was negatively impacted by a Google core algorithm update, you do not have to wait for the next core update to recover. Yesterday, during another Google webmaster hangout with John, I asked him several questions regarding this statement. It turns out that the data and signals that make up these core updates get updated regularly between Google’s core updates.

Previous communication: Over a year ago, Google had stated that “broad core updates tend to happen every few months.” Google mentioned that “content impacted by one might not recover – assuming improvements have been made – until the next broad core update is released.” Many SEOs generally believe it is rare to see a full recovery from a Google core update without another core update being run by Google.

The blog post continues to discuss incremental improvements. “However, we’re constantly making updates to our search algorithms, including smaller core updates. We don’t announce all of these because they’re generally not widely noticeable. Still, when released, they can cause content to recover if improvements warrant,” Google wrote. These improvements may be due to a smaller, unannounced core update or other algorithm updates that might help the site’s overall ranking.

The change: You do not have to wait for a Google core update to see a full recovery, Mueller stated in Friday’s video at the 3:35 mark, and confirmed it again in our conversation yesterday.

Mueller said on Friday, “it’s not something that requires a site to kind of wait for the next update to have a chance to be seen differently. They can continue working on things and things can improve over time.” He noted that it is “possible that our next core update will make a bigger change in the same direction that you’ve been working, and you’ll see a bigger change in your site’s performance as well.”

“In general, sites don’t have to wait for the next bigger update to start seeing changes. So from that point of view, I wouldn’t just, like, stop working on things once you think you’ve done the right thing, but I’d continue working in that direction. You should see at least some incremental improvements over time,” he said.

Yesterday, Mueller confirmed that you can see a “full recovery” from a Google core update before the core update is run again. You do not have to wait for a Google core update to see a full recovery, he stated.

Regularly refreshed: Mueller told me yesterday that the signals and data these core updates use are “regularly” updated between the quarterly or so core updates. He confirmed that, unlike the old Penguin or Panda updates where you had to wait for Google to push out a new update, core updates do not operate this way. The scores within the core updates are “regularly updated” all the time. It might not be in real-time or hourly or even daily, but they are regularly updated, he confirmed.

Here is the first video from Friday where Mueller made this statement. As soon as I listened to it, I asked him to confirm its accuracy. He looked into it and I spoke to him yesterday to clarify.

(First video embedded here)

Here is the second video, which starts about 42 seconds in:

(Second video embedded here)

Why we care: This is great news for sites negatively affected by these Google core updates. While Google generally pushes out a broad core update every three months or so, if your site loses 50% of its Google organic traffic, you do not have to wait a whole business quarter to recover. You can try to follow Google’s advice on core updates and, hopefully, see improvements before the next core update is released.

Meanwhile, it has been over four months since the last core update, which occurred on May 4, 2020. SEOs and webmasters are eagerly waiting for the next core update and bracing for its impact, which is expected any day now.