Once again search giant has announced the rollout of a new core update to its search algorithm starting November 3, 2023. This is the second core update in two months, following the October 2023 core update.
In the announcement, Google explained that core updates target improvements to the core ranking systems that are most important for generating high-quality search results. While the October update focused on one core system, this November update improved a different core ranking system.
Google releases core updates several times per year to continually refine and enhance its search algorithms. The company stated that for content creators, core updates generally do not require any action unless traffic changes are noticed after an update.
If traffic does shift, Google recommends reviewing any guidance related to that specific update and focusing on creating helpful, reliable and high-quality content. Changes from core updates are not related to spam but may indicate opportunities for improvement.
Google nicely defines the difference between Google's ranking system and an update. Google wrote -
Ranking systems are what we use to generate search results. We use multiple ranking systems that do different things. We have a guide to Google search ranking systems that explains some of our more notable ones. Updates are when we make an improvement to a ranking system.
The announcement also provided other useful information about Google's process for search updates:
- Google makes thousands of incremental updates per year and only highlights the most significant ones.
- Updates aim to improve ranking systems and show more useful results.
- All potential search changes go through extensive testing and evaluation before rollout.
- Google tries to avoid disruptive updates during the holiday shopping season.
- If your site is affected by a core update, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re being penalized for spam. Non-spam issues may be the cause.