On March 12, Google had confirmed that it released a broad core search ranking algorithm update this week.
Google posted on its SearchLiaison account “This week, we released a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year.”
Google was asked if it made a large core algorithm update this week. Google tweeted confirmation and added “Our guidance about such updates remains as we’ve covered before.”
This week, we released a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. Our guidance about such updates remains as we’ve covered before. Please see these tweets for more about that:https://t.co/uPlEdSLHoXhttps://t.co/tmfQkhdjPL
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) March 13, 2019
This update was confirmed by Google Search Liaison Danny Sullivan and that it started March 12th.
A number of core ranking updates are done by Google per year, and despite that, the company confirms very few of them. When it comes to broad core updates, Google stated a number of times that you cannot do anything specific to fix your rankings. Google’s previous advice is “There’s no ‘fix’ for pages that may perform less well other than to remain focused on building great content. Over time, it may be that your content may rise relative to other pages.”
If you had rankings that did change recently, it could have been because of the broad core ranking update, and probably not related to a technical change that was made on your web site.
Google has previously shared this advice around broad core algorithm updates:
“Each day, Google usually releases one or more changes designed to improve our results. Some are focused around specific improvements. Some are broad changes. Last week, we released a broad core algorithm update. We do these routinely several times per year.
As per the usual, there are some sites that may have noticed some drops or gains. Keep in mind that there’s nothing wrong with pages that may now perform less well. It’s actually the changes to our systems that are benefiting pages that were previously under-rewarded.
There isn’t any sort of “fix” that you can do that could perform less well other than to remain focused on getting good content out there.
To see more advice from Google around Google updates, see this Twitter thread.