September 2019 Broad Core Update is Here
Google has started rolling out what it's calling the September 2019 Broad Core Update according to a Tweet from the Search Liason account:
The September 2019 Core Update is now live and will be rolling out across our various data centers over the coming days. pic.twitter.com/DhJQ8AFUYL
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) September 24, 2019
We've seen previous core updates confirmed by Google go live in the previous years:
As is typical with these "broad core update", there is little to no specific advice on how to respond to any changes you see to your website's rankings or traffic.
September 2019 Broad Core Update was Pre-Announced
Google announced that it would release the newest broad core update today, September 24, 2019, according to an announcement posted to its Search Liason Twitter account:
Later today, we are releasing a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. It is called the September 2019 Core Update. Our guidance about such updates remains as we’ve covered before. Please see this blog for more about that: https://t.co/e5ZQUAlt0G
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) September 24, 2019
According to Danny Sullivan, the man behind the Search Liason account, the update was scheduled to start rolling out “in a few hours” after the announcement:
I expect it to begin in a few hours; these typically take a few days to fully roll out. Yes, we'll post when the rollout begins. We don't post when it ends because there's typically other updates that are always happening, too. But after a few days, as said.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) September 24, 2019
If you read Sullivan’s Tweet you’ll see that he expects the full update to take a few days to fully take effect.
As this is a developing story, we’ll keep this announcement up updated as the 2019 September Core Update starts to go live.
UPDATE: Reactions to the September 2019 Core Update
It took a few days, but website owners and marketers are starting to feel the effects of Google's broad core update. Some early analysis by Sistrix shows clear impacts in the health and wellness sector.
There have also been changes to search results for travel-related keywords but it's too early to tell if it's a result of the September 2019 update, an impact of Thomas Cook's closure or a combination of the two.
Here we've compiled a compilation of reactions from website owners and marketers around the web.
Some are positive:
While other reactions are not quite as positive:
You can also check in on prominent digital marketing consultant Glenn Gabe's Twitter feed to catch his occasional updates on analysis of websites affected by this update.
What we've seen at WooRank
For what it's worth, we started to see the 2019 September Core Update start to have an affect on WooRank's traffic starting on September 25.
In the 2 days follwing the release, we saw:
- 38% increase in users
- 35% increase in session duration
- 1.5% decrease in bounce rate
In the week following the start of the roll-out, WooRank has experienced:
- 21% more sessions
- 7% more new sessions
- 30% more new users
- a 3% lower bounce rate
You can see the overall effect in Google Analytics (orange represents before the update, blue is after the update):
Looking in Google Search Console, we saw week-to-week...
- 2,500 more clicks
- 25,000 more impressions
- 0.5% higher average click-through rate
- Improvement in average position by 1
... from the week before the update and the week since the update.
What You can do for This Update
Since Google announced this update same day, there's not much a website owner or marketer can do to get their site ready. Plus, since this is a "broad core update", this change won't be focusing on any particular ranking factor, quality signal or specific element when it comes to rankings.
Instead, the advice remains the same for all broad core updates: focus on creating a quality website with good user experience, has content that's valuable for users and is mobile friendly.
