Google March 2023 broad core update done rolling out

The Google March 2023 broad core update that started rolling out on March 15, 2023, is now officially done rolling out. The update took 13 days to roll out, beginning on March 15, 2023, and ending on March 28, 2023.

The announcement. Google posted on March 28th this on the status dashboard that the update has completed rolling out:

Core updates are big. In general. Google core updates are big updates and if a site is impacted by a core update, it can result in big changes to that site’s search rankings. So these updates can be substantial in terms of site traffic, conversions and revenue for businesses and organizations.

Now that the update is done, we will do a report on the impact of this update in the coming days. But early SEO industry chatter suggests this update was a fairly impactful update even compared to previous core updates.

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 has completed its March 2023 core ranking update, so now will be a good time to dig in and see what improvements you may want to make to your site.

You can read more of our coverage in Search Engine Land’s Google Algorithm Updates history.