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Update from the future: On September 26, both the September Core Update and the Product Reviews Update have been fully rolled out. Read about it here and find out how to know if you’ve been hit and what to do about it.
Here comes the second broad core update of the year. The September 2022 broad core update is here and it’s supposed to make the consequences of the Google Helpful Content Update more serious.
Google announced the Broad Core Update via Twitter and updated its search updates page. The rollout started on September 12 and, as always, it will take around two weeks for the update to be fully rolled out, Search Engine Land reports.
Today we released the September 2022 core update. We’ll update our ranking release history page when the rollout is complete: https://t.co/sQ5COfdNcb — Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) September 12, 2022
As we reported earlier, there was some talk about Google Helpful Content Update becoming stronger with every next update. This is because no huge ranking changes have been reported while the update was rolling out. At the same time, Google’s Danny Sullivan was ‘warning’ everyone about its volatility and significance.
“With this helpful content update, as I said before, it’s part of a continuing effort. Directionally, it’s what SEOs and creators should pay attention to. We’ll continue to tune it, refine it. It matters, which is why we’ve spent so much time talking about it,” he said on Twitter.
Second Core Update Of The Year
The first broad core update of the year was back in May, and it was a big one. The May 2022 Core Update caused some troubles in the first 24 hours of its release. Even though no specific fluctuations suggest that this update was focused on a specific niche, real estate seems to have experienced the biggest impact.
The September 2022 Core Update is a global one, meaning it’s impacting all regions and languages and targets all types of content. It should impact Google Discover, feature snippets, and more. There have been some reports of volatility and changes in traffic so far, according to seroundtable.com.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise, since that’s what a core update is – it’s a change to multiple parts of Google’s algorithm, and common sense will tell us that means big changes are bound to happen.
Not that directly. Point is our ranking systems use a variety of signals overall, as we said: https://t.co/G6g7hvE7P2 Helpful content is weighted, so sites on the edge might not see issues. But if they also have core update issues, the combo might be more significant. pic.twitter.com/tQZcsZQHkp — Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) September 12, 2022
What To Do If You’re Affected By The Update?
First of all, wait for the update to roll out fully. Only after it’s done can you assess the damage. If you’re getting some negative rankings during a rollout, that doesn’t mean something’s wrong with your website. That’s why it’s better to wait.
Google did offer a list of questions to ask yourself if your site has been hit by a core update. For now, wait for the update to roll out, be patient and take notes!
