Google has announced that the November 2021 core update has finished rolling out.
The Announcement: "The November 2021 Core Update rollout is now complete," was shared on the Google Search Central Twitter account.
November 2021 Core Update: The update began rolling out on November 17, 2021, around 11 a.m. ET and completed its rollout over 13 days, concluding on November 30, 2021.
What Was Felt: Early data shows that the update rolled out quickly and significantly impacted many queries tracked by data providers. There were some fluctuations, referred to as "tremors," observed around the days leading up to and including Thanksgiving, as well as on November 30. These were the final phases of the broad core update’s impact.
More on the November 2021 Core Update
The SEO Community: The update was impactful both in ranking and timing. Community reactions, including early discussions, ranking charts, and social shares, were covered in a blog post on Search Engine Roundtable.
What to Do If You Are Hit: Google has previously provided guidance on what to consider if negatively impacted by a core update. While specific recovery actions aren’t outlined, a negative ranking impact does not necessarily indicate issues with your pages. Google has a list of questions to ponder if your site is affected. Recovery can be noticed between core updates, but significant changes are typically seen after subsequent core updates.
Why We Care: Google updates its search ranking algorithms periodically, affecting how sites perform in search results. Being aware of the update timelines helps identify whether changes in search performance are due to modifications on your site or adjustments in Google’s ranking algorithms.
If your site experienced changes between November 17 and November 30, it likely relates to the November core update.
More on Google Updates
Other Google Updates This Year: This year saw several confirmed updates from Google, including:
- July 2021 core update
- Google MUM rolled out in June for COVID names and expanded in September (though unrelated to core updates)
- June 28 spam update
- June 23 spam update
- Google page experience update
- Google predator algorithm update
- June 2021 core update
- July 2021 core update
- July link spam update
- November spam update
Previous Core Updates: The July 2021 core update was quick to roll out, followed by the June 2021 core update, which was slower but significant. The December 2020 core update was notably larger than the May 2020 core update. Before that were the January 2020 core update and the September 2019 core update, which had a lesser impact. There was also a November update focusing on local rankings.
Past Google updates have been thoroughly documented for reference.
