Google Confirmed Broad Core Update in Early November
After plenty of industry discussion starting around November 7 and 8 and continuing through the weekend, Google has confirmed in a series of Tweets that an algorithm update has been released:
Some have asked if we had an update to Google Search last week. We did, actually several updates, just as we have several updates in any given week on a regular basis. In this thread, a reminder of when and why we give specific guidance about particular updates....
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) November 12, 2019
And while the initial Search Liaison announcement doesn’t specify, subsequent Tweets do refer to the update as a "broad core update":
Broad core updates are often broadly noticeable. That’s why we have shared about them since last year and even preannounce them, plus provide the actionable guidance that there’s often nothing to "fix" and emphasize instead having great content….https://t.co/e5ZQUA3RC6
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) November 12, 2019
Interestingly, Google didn’t pre-announce this update as it did with the recent September 2019 Broad Core Update. Apparently, because it doesn’t consider this update to be very big or because they don’t have any "actionable advice" for sites that are impacted by the update.
How to respond to the November core update
So far, this has been pretty standard operating procedure for Google’s broad core updates:
There’s nothing specific to address if your site has lost ranking and/or traffic
It’s not targeting any specific issue, ranking factor or spam tactic
Just make good content
Danny Sullivan, the man behind the Search Liaison account, also fielded some questions on his personal Twitter account giving some basic guidance to website owners who think Google’s updates are providing bad search results:
I would suggest that if you feel our ranking systems are somehow missing the mark on highlighting content from your site that you believe really is the best for a particular search, share that search and those pages as feedback in our public forums https://t.co/7eJJsYJefK
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) November 12, 2019
In a response to a now-deleted Tweet, he also says that the job of Google Search is to provide its users with better results. Which will result in some sites benefiting from updates while other sites might not do as well as before
Our job is to provide the best results we can. If we do an update, it may mean some sites get less traffic than before. Other sites that perhaps might have been under-recognized may do better.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) November 12, 2019
Reactions to the November Core Update
Reactions to this update have been somewhat mixed. Many of the tranking tools out there such as the Mozcast and RankRanker haven’t shown much action in search results. Which lends credence to Google’s thoughts that this is a "smaller" update.
Anecdotal reactions from various website owners and marketers, however, have highlighted some big changes to their site traffic.
Here’s a collection of comments from the Webmaster World thread:
For what it’s worth, WooRank hasn’t yet seen much of an impact from this update in either Google Search Console or Google Analytics reporting (traffic, clicks and rankings are within normal variation), but we’ll be monitoring the data and updating our coverage accordingly.
Has your site (or client sites) been impacted by this core update? Let us know!
