Google Rolls Out October 2023 Broad Core Update

Google started October 2023 with a bang as it rolled out another core update expected to impact search rankings. 

This is the third core update released by Google this year, and while the company didn’t disclose what changed, you can lean on the rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs) to find clues about the update’s impact on your website’s ranking.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this blog:

• •  What’s a Broad Core Update?
• •  October 2023 Broad Core Update: What You Need To Know
• •  Five Ways To Deal With Broad Core Updates
  • •  Audit Your Search Rankings
  • •  Comply With Google’s Guidelines and Best Practices
  • •  Self-Assess: Do You Have User-Centric Content?
  • •  Refresh Your Content
  • •  Build Links and Relationships With High DA Websites

If October’s broad core update has hit your rankings, read on and learn some strategies to recover, improve Google rankings and protect your website from SERP volatility.

What’s a Broad Core Update?

Google rolls out several algorithm updates to continuously improve how it’s serving content to the end-user. Aside from routine, unannounced ones, Google posts about these major updates:

• • Link spam and Google spam content update: These spam updates aim to remove spam content from the search engine index.
• • Product reviews: Product review updates look to improve how product reviews from shoppers are surfaced on SERPs.
• • Helpful content update: The helpful content update looks to reward helpful content that answers queries quickly and with accurate information.
• • Page experience: While less frequent than the others in this list, this update looks to reward websites with an excellent user experience on target devices like desktop and mobile.

Unlike this Google algorithm update 2023 list with specific targets, the search engine titan also releases vague but impactful broad core updates for its search ranking algorithms. These are general changes that don’t have a particular goal in mind. Instead, they look to improve the quality of Google rankings by tweaking signals and weights across the board. 

The company will also announce if it’s rolling out a Google broad core update:

Image from Google Search Central via X

A Google core algorithm update takes at least two weeks to complete, and Google will also announce once the rollout wraps up. You should expect Google Search volatility to hound your content rankings during those two weeks.

Here’s an example of Search Central’s tweet after completing its August Google core update rollout:

Image from Google Search via X

You can also look at Google’s Search Status Dashboard to see the progress of the company’s most recent Google algorithm update 2023. This dashboard includes all major updates since December 2020:

Image from Google Search Status Dashboard

Currently, the status is set to “Information” since it’s still being rolled out. This will change to “Available,” with the days and hours it took to roll out the update after it’s complete.

(Read more: What Are Broad Core Algorithm Updates and How To Recover From Them)

Google search volatility is typically seen whenever the company releases a core update, so it’s crucial to pin notifications about it to stay informed and improve Google rankings.

October 2023 Broad Core Update: What You Need To Know

Here are some things you need to know about the October 2023 broad core update:

• • Date started: October 25, 2023
• • Rollout length: Up to two weeks
• • What changed: Not disclosed

That’s basically the story of all core updates – no information about what changed, just that it did and is causing SERP volatility. As mentioned previously, this is the third Google core algorithm update this year after the March 2023 and August 2023 core updates.

Five Ways To Deal With Broad Core Updates

A Google algorithm update 2023 causes SERP volatility, so it’s crucial to always tweak your strategy, abide by Google’s best practices and apply a white-hat search engine optimization (SEO) approach. 

Here are six fool-proof ways of achieving evergreen rankings after a Google broad core update:

1. Audit Your Search Rankings

Start by taking a look at your SERP visibility and asking these questions:

• • • • What keywords have dropped in rank?
    • • Are there any new keywords that you’re now ranking for?
    • • Have pages lost visibility for specific queries?

You can also look at your competitor’s rankings and analyze what made them rank higher or lower than your page. Taking note of these changes and why they happen makes it easier to adjust your SEO strategy.

Tip: Use search engine analytics tools like Semrush Rank or Ahrefs Rank Tracker to track your rankings and compare them against the competition.

2. Comply With Google’s Guidelines and Best Practices

Google wants the best content to appear on its SERPs, and it has published resources to show how site owners and content creators can help Google achieve this.

For example, its search rater guidelines provide an overview of how Google’s Search Raters assess your content, primarily through the following criteria:

• • • • • Experience: Do you have evidence of firsthand experience about the content you’re writing about?
      • • Expertise: Do you have expertise on the subject matter? Things like certifications, awards and credentials can help here.
      • • Authoritativeness: Do people and other industry experts trust your content and website?
      • • Trustworthiness: Your website is safe, accurate, honest and reliable for end-users. This means that your website shouldn’t have any malicious software or links to fraudulent sites.

Other resources that provide insight into Google’s search ranking algorithms include the following:

• • • • • SEO Starter Guide: This resource is perfect for anyone just starting to monetize their websites via Google Search.
      • • SEO for Developers: Unlike the starter guide, the developer’s guide provides best practices that web designers and developers can use to optimize their websites. These guidelines don’t focus on the content but on the more technical aspects of SEO.
      • • Google Search Console: While this isn’t a help document, Search Console provides insights into the relevant metrics that Google uses to rank your content. This also functions like a search engine analytics tool, providing data such as search queries, backlinks and crawl errors.

Google also offers podcasts, like Search Off The Record and SEO Office Hours, to help SEO professionals gain the best information about Google’s best practices and even a Google algorithm update 2023.

3. Self-Assess: Do You Have User-Centric Content?

Getting over the Google core update hump isn’t about knowing what changed but, instead, focusing on what or who matters most: your users.

All the resources we provided in the previous tip focus on user experience and creating and writing content that is people-first instead of over-optimizing for known Google ranking factors.

This is what Google’s John Mueller said on the August 2023 SOTR podcast episode:

“It’s a lot more now about the bigger picture.”

This means you shouldn’t just keep one ranking signal in mind to survive Google algorithm update 2023, such as the core updates and the October Google spam update. View your content in the eyes of your audience:

• • • • • • Will they find your content useful?
        • • Does your content demonstrate expertise and firsthand experience?
        • • Do you have a clear purpose for your website?
        • • Will you have a satisfying learning experience after reading your content and leaving your website?

These are just some of the questions you have to honestly answer to determine if your content serves your users, which are humans, instead of search ranking algorithms.

4. Refresh Your Content

All the tips we’ve discussed so far are more on the creation side. 

But if you have a website that’s been around for quite some time, it may be time to give it a facelift and refresh your content. This means going through all the content on your site, seeing what needs updating or changing and then making adjustments to ensure everything isn’t a target of Google Search volatility.

For instance, if your content’s ranking falls via a search engine analytics tool, it’s high time to review and refresh your content. This move could be anything from changing your target keywords to writing new, more engaging copy for your audience.

5. Build Links and Relationships With High-Authority Websites

While it’s true that Google no longer considers links as a top three ranking factor, links didn’t lose their significance for your SERP visibility.

Yes, a Google core update tweaks ranking signals, but links from authoritative websites, or those with high Domain Authority (DA), make you look trustworthy and credible.

However, you don’t want your backlink profile filled with low-quality or irrelevant websites, especially with the routine Google spam update. Instead, find content partners relevant to your business and reach out to them for link-building opportunities.

Stay on Top of Google Updates With Thrive Internet Marketing Agency

A Google core algorithm update is a major source of headaches for website owners and SEO professionals. If you’re focusing on just one or two ranking signals today, you’ll likely lose your current rank on the SERPs.

That’s why it’s crucial to subscribe to Thrive’s newsletter for the best updates from search marketing and organic optimization, social media and across the digital marketing world.

Thrive is a 200+ strong team of strategists, developers, search pros and creatives helping businesses succeed online. If you want to protect your search rankings, partnering with Thrive is your best move forward. Contact us today and rank better sustainably.