Google releases March 2023 broad core update

Google is now rolling out the March 2023 broad core update, this is the first broad core update of 2023, following the September 2022 broad core update. It has been just over 6-months since we last had a broad core update from Google Search.

The announcement. Google announced this on Twitter and updated its search updates page saying “Today we released the March 2023 core update. We’ll update our ranking release history page when the rollout is complete.” Google added, “The rollout may take up to 2 weeks to complete.”

Previous core updates. The most recent previous core update was the September 2022 broad core update which was less impactful than previous core updates and finished on Septemeber 26.  May 2022 broad core update was a significant and fast update. We also had core updates prior including the November 2021 core update and prior to that was the July 2021 core update, before that it was the June 2021 core update and that update was slow to roll out but a big one.

Before that, we had the December 2020 core update, which was very big, bigger than the May 2020 core update, and that update was also big and broad and took a couple of weeks to fully roll out. Before that was the January 2020 core update, we had some analysis on that update over here.

The one prior to that was the September 2019 core update. That update felt weaker to many SEOs and webmasters, as many said it didn’t have as big of an impact as previous core updates. You can read more about past Google updates here.

Product reviews update. As a reminder, the February 2023 product reviews update just finished rolling out, it started on February 21 and ran for 14 days, ending on March 7. This update as significant update.

What to do if you are hit. Google has given advice on what to consider if you are negatively impacted by a core update in the past. There aren’t specific actions to take to recover, and in fact, a negative rankings impact may not signal anything is wrong with your pages.

However, Google has offered a list of questions to consider if your site is hit by a core update. Google said you can see a bit of a recovery between core updates but the biggest change you would see would be after another core update.

Why we care. Whenever Google updates its search ranking algorithms, it means that your site can do better or worse in the search results. Knowing when Google makes these updates gives us something to point to in order to understand if it was something you changed on your website or something Google changed with its ranking algorithm. Today, we know Google will be releasing a core ranking update, so keep an eye on your analytics and rankings over the next couple of weeks.