Google Releases March 2023 Core Update

[engine]

Google has said it has released its March 2023 Core Update, and the rollout is expected to take a couple of weeks to complete.


[developers.google.com...]

WebmasterWorld March 2023 Google Search Observations [webmasterworld.com...]

[RedBar]

Real traffic switched on for me at 11.00, so far 4 hours of normal views, I wonder for how long?

[BigKat]

USA and Canada are definitely not sending more traffic.

@ ichthyous
The layout Google is using in the USA is far more ad-filled then say the UK, which I just compared. For a general product query, using desktop 1080 res, below is how Google's USA layout compares to UK's layout:

(1) USA sponsored top product sidebar block with nine products -vs- UK's no sidebar product block.
(2) USA sponsored expanded text ads at the top -vs- UK's (1) block of four products.
(1) USA organic listing above the fold -vs- UK's (2) organic listings above the fold.
(1) People also ask box on both USA and UK.
(1) USA Organic listing -vs- UK's (2) Organic listings.
(1) USA sponsored product block of eight products -vs- UK's (1) video block of three videos.
(4) USA organic listings -vs- UK's (5) organic listings.

Autoscroll was active for the USA and not for UK when I checked.

In the USA, where we rank doesn't seem to make much difference. Our #1 ranks aren't bringing in any traffic because there are too many ads on the page above them. The excessive number and placement of ads in the USA, and possibly Canada, may be the reason why you aren't seeing any increase in your USA and Canada traffic despite ranking better.

[EditorialGuy]

Our 21-year-old editorial travel information site had a nice uptick about a day before the March Core Update was announced. In the days immediately after the update began rolling out, we had a moderate but sharp decline in traffic, seemingly across the board.

Traffic dropped maybe 10 to 15 percent, depending on the day, with average positions in Google Search Console dropping from the 17-18 range to 26 one day and 19 or so overall.Things have perked up a bit in the last couple of days, but we're still below the levels of the same dates last year.

Usually I don't see this much volatility during major Google updates, and in most cases we're barely affected by the updates at all. I'm guessing that our site won't see a lot more change from this current update, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong (preferably in a good way!).

Side note: Have the rest of you noticed long delays in Google Search Console stats? The lag in the figures that I watch (search position and such) has been 15 hours or more on many occasions lately.

[Atomic]

Ouch. Sorry @EG. That's brutal.

Side note: Have the rest of you noticed long delays in Google Search Console stats? The lag in the figures that I watch (search position and such) has been 15 hours or more on many occasions lately.

On the day this update was announced it took over 36 hours for data to refresh. Nope. Not stressful in any way.

[thinkfast]

Google is fully concentrate on helpfull contents now .... I am managing two 10+ years old website .... Few months before i redirect one to another main firm domain ...... But after two three months i live them again (Remove redirection) ...... Ranking was preety well as before after few days ....... But now i am noticing traffic and indexing status is decreasing ..... while my firm website is going up ... I leave few pages with same contents and i think traffic are reducing due to this, means this update is also related to spammy contents. Changing contents and hoping to restore my first website ranking again.

[RubicCubed]

Google is fully concentrate on helpfull contents now

I must respectfully disagree. IMO, Google is fully focused on monetizing the search results with ads.

[Micha]

So if Google is focusing on helpful content, I wonder what is supposed to make sense with the many results I see for my keyword. Advertising pages and broken pages (empty) dominate there currently.

[ErrlyBird]

I wonder if all the folks at Google are stressed about this update or just having a laugh at all the commotion.

[superclown2]

wonder if all the folks at Google are stressed about this update or just having a laugh at all the commotion.

A lot of their jobs depend on it - and it could be a heads they lose, tails they still lose situation. AI is predicted to destroy a lot of jobs after all, and there are rumours (no doubt completely false).

[mhansen]

I got access to Bard this week and had a long discussion about Google search results. If you have access, it's just chock full of great replies.

Prompt: Why does Google show so many ads on top of the search results?

Google shows more ads than content above the fold in its search engine because it is a business and needs to generate revenue. The more ads that are shown, the more money Google makes. Additionally, Google believes that users are more likely to click on ads that are displayed above the fold, as they are more visible and easier to access.

However, there are some drawbacks to showing more ads than content above the fold. For example, it can make it more difficult for users to find the information they are looking for, and it can also make users feel like they are being bombarded with ads. Additionally, Google has been criticized for giving preferential treatment to advertisers, which can lead to a less user-friendly experience.

Overall, Google's decision to show more ads than content above the fold is a business decision that is likely to continue in the future. However, there are some drawbacks to this decision that Google will need to weigh carefully.

I guess we have the answer directly from Google Bard itself.

[EditorialGuy]

I asked Bard a couple of questions about things that were easy to check (transit fares, how to get from Airport X to the city center) and got information that was incomplete or out of date.

IMO, this low-quality content makes Google look worse than Google Search does when it returns an incomplete or out-of-date search result, since it's being served up by Google itself. A disclaimer that "I have limitations and won’t always get it right" isn't likely to delight users.

[ichthyous]

Strong traffic this weekend...where the customers at? Where the new sales at? I haven't had visibility or traffic this strong in a long time, but no sales. They aren't even making inquiries.

[Martin Ice Web]

Worst weekend for years. google is able to set even lower quality traffic ( for users and for websites ) with every update.

Sales quotient ( sales/traffic) is even higher than before. But this sales are only very cheap items and in most cases only 1 item.
It is a total lack of business sales.( and before someone says it is world economy ). No it startet with this google update. Before the core update everything was fine.

Traffic today is -43% off.

[ichthyous]

I am seeing very large traffic spikes from everywhere since yesterday...north america, europe, Australia/NZ and Asia. The traffic is real as I am watching them in real time and they are moving through the site, staying for a long while and typing in searches too. I am in complete shock that so much traffic came in this weekend (and continues this morning) and not one person made a purchase inquiry! I doubt highly that Google can remove all traffic with sales intent so effectively, surely some must slip through the net and not want to click ads.

[EditorialGuy]

Our Google traffic has continued to increase in recent days (though not by a spectacular amount), and average rankings have continued to improve. I can't speak to conversions, since we're an information site rather than an e-commerce site, but ad revenue has been holding up okay.

In terms of overall traffic, we're down about 22 percent from the same time last year, but that may have more to do with consumer perceptions about the economy, the war in Ukraine, SERP clutter, etc. than with Google rankings.

On the brighter side, average ad revenue per user has almost doubled, and affiliate bookings are fairly decent. So we're still getting "quality traffic" (which shouldn't be too surprising, since all the Google features at the top of informational SERPs are probably sucking away searchers who are looking for quick answers to simple queries, leaving more serious readers to scroll down to the 10 blue links).

Side note: The March Core Update was launched on March 15, and Google said it should take about two weeks to roll out fully. That means the March Core Update should be complete just two days from now, if Google is on schedule, so I wonder if we'll see many more changes or if the update is mostly done.

[Martin Ice Web]

@ichthyous, this is something that i don‘t Unterstand, too. Sometimes i think that These are spying people. Looking What their competitor is doing better. Sometimes we get emails After this Periods of traffic from search Engine optimizers.
But this Kind of traffic is definitly Not buyers.

[Atomic]

And the March 2023 Core Update has completed.
[status.search.google.com ]

[BigKat]

this Kind of traffic is definitly Not buyers

The excessive amount of ads filters off most of the buyers (humans). Despite having very good ranks, and the core update completed (kudos to Atomic), much of what Google is sending us is traffic from VPNs, the cloud and traditional hosts. Some may be humans researching competition as you suspect, but I think most of what Google is sending is bot traffic. We would expect to see Google send traffic with IP addresses of traditional ISPs, like other search engines are doing, but Google's sending junk. I believe Google loosened their bot detection/filters to allow some of that bot traffic to be diverted to organics to make it appear Google is still sending us a lot of traffic.

[Nutterum]

@BigKat - what amount of traffic you are talking about? hundreds? Thousands? I see my bot traffic increased like 15% but its like several hundred per day which is not that big of a deal. But if you are seeing several thousand then its another ball game.

[strummer19]

60% loss....see you next core update.

[RedBar]

My USA traffic for the last 7 days has been -23% and this is easily seen on my traffic graphs when it gets to UK time 18.00 my traffic slows dramatically and overall my traffic is down about 15%, now there's a non-surprise.

[BigKat]

what amount of traffic you are talking about?

@Nutterum

I prefer to look at percentages, and below should give you an idea of the extremely poor traffic Google is sending us along with the impact of excessive ads appearing for our search terms. These percentages are from a 24 hour period after the core update was announced as completed.

28.36% Genuine ISP IP addresses
34.75% Googlezip IP addresses
36.89% VPN/Cloud/Host/Bot IP addresses

[brbguy]

Big traffic drop today. Semrush sensor spiking again. Obviously more updating going on even after announcing end of core update yesterday.

[Atomic]

ChatGpt has some inspiring words for many SEO professionals after this latest core update.

"Write me a Shakespearean sonnet about an SEO manager whose website just lost money after a Google core update."

Oh cruel fate, thou hast dealt me a blow,
My website, once thriving, now laid low.
The Google gods, with their updates and whims,
Have stripped me of my traffic, my wealth, my hymns.

I, an SEO manager, with skills in hand,
Did all I could, to make my site grand.
Keywords, backlinks, and tags galore,
I thought I had it all, and so much more.

But lo and behold, the core update came,
And all my efforts were put to shame.
My rankings fell, my traffic declined,
And all my hopes and dreams were left behind.

Oh woe is me, for I am undone,
A once great site, now in the depths of none.
But I shall not give up, I'll fight and strive,
And one day my site shall again thrive.

[ErrlyBird]

Huge spike up today. Have been seeing our lowest lows since the start of the update, now seeing highest highs after done rolling out. Not sure what is going on or if it will even stick, but it looks better than it has been. Highly confused.

[Atomic]

Huge spike up today. Have been seeing our lowest lows since the start of the update, now seeing highest highs after done rolling out. Not sure what is going on or if it will even stick, but it looks better than it has been. Highly confused.

Bounce backs like this are common. It's a major reason you shouldn't fiddle with things for even a month after an update.

[seoguy_29]

There is some SERP volatility after the update. Are you all getting the same?

[thinkfast]

There is some SERP volatility after the update. Are you all getting the same?

Its happening with all webmasters .... Either they are doing well or loosing ranking and traffic .... So, its happening randomly with all people who are depending on search engines like Google for his business.

[Martin Ice Web]

Yesterday was an uptic in traffic/conversions. But it lasted only till evening, then shut down.

The only thing that i recognize about this update is, that they moved all the cheese to amazon. Conversions droped on online shop but rised on amazon sales.
Some more reasons for users not to use google if they only can find amazon in serps.

[Nutterum]

@Martin Ice Web

Actually true. I have seen this in the apparel space where aggregator sites get siphoned traffic for no apparent reason. The same days our conversions dropped on organic they spiked on the aggregator sites. Im not complaining as I get the same or even slightly higher conversion amounts but I have to say the situation on Google's part is hilarious. And guess what, these moves coincide with bigger ad spend on the CPC spends. Surprise , surprise.

[RedBar]

My global site has seen much more consistent traffic this week including generating more genuine enquiries, none from the USA as usual. My Indian traffic is well up amd being a major supplier to that market, that's good. China's widget producers are changing their raw widget sources and, believe this or not, trying to get out of the very low-cost widget market owing to their ever-increasing production costs and not being able to compete against "new" lower-cost countries.

My widget trade is going back to the 90s and the disruption China created, which country(ies) will come to the fore this time?

[ichthyous]

Nice, a 50% drop in USA traffic this morn...all of it "direct" traffic. Search traffic is up 10% so far today. Non-USA traffic is all at par or nicely higher...UK is +94% this morning!

I think direct traffic is mostly google image hits or bot traffic...can anyone else chime in on that?

[EditorialGuy]

If the March Core Update is truly over, it didn't amount to much for us. We had more swings than usual during the update but appear to have ended up where we were at the beginning. I don't know whether to be disappointed or relieved.

[Simona Claps]

Is anyone experiencing rise in impressions after this recent update?

[instand1]

Here impressions are less. To me it seems that the best keyword are less effected by the March Core Update.

[christianz]

SERPs look like joke today

[superclown2]

If the March Core Update is truly over, it didn't amount to much for us. We had more swings than usual during the update but appear to have ended up where we were at the beginning. I don't know whether to be disappointed or relieved.

From where I am the SERPs look very little different from what they were before the update. In other words extremely poor; but then I gave up using Google for search ages ago.

[Atomic]

Those pesky German, Polish, and Italian nefarious redirect sites have all but disappeared from SERPs I monitor. So have the worst of the AI spinner/spam sites. And some of those larger sites that abuse their authority have taken some noticeable hits where they should. And the difference between mobile and desktop has never been so great. A few old tricks that used to work aren't working as well or at all and those wings of the SEO world are not taking it well.

[techykk]

We are seeing positive impact with ~25% improvement in traffic in telecom site.

[ichthyous]

I didn't see much of a change from this update either, which is a good thing...my impressions and clicks kept rising steadily throughout March, but this trend has been going on since August of last year, so the update had nothing to do with it. The same problem persists...more traffic in general, but a very low conversion rate from it.

Web impressions and clicks from GSC for 12 months: [ibb.co...]
Image impressions and clicks from GSC for 12 months: [ibb.co...]

Despite this strong trend upwards, new customer inquiries are much lower than in 2021, when I had a lower level of traffic. Is this the effect of more ads on the page? Yes, but I also think that it's economic factors at play. People do not feel confident to spend...lots of businesses in my field that have bricks and mortar locations are closing and 2022 was a dismal year for sales from start to finish.

[Simona Claps]

Has the March update roll out completed? My website <snip> console has not updated for last 26hours

[edited by: engine at 10:14 am (utc) on Apr 7, 2023]
[edit reason] Please see Charter and WebmasterWorld TOS [/edit]

[engine]

Simona_Claps "The rollout was complete as of March 28, 2023." See message 5084651 [webmasterworld.com...]

[Mentoren]

Hello, with all the ups and downs that are reported here, I still miss information about exactly what the update was about. So if my side is among the losers...why?

[not2easy]

Hi Mentoren and welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]

It was a Core update. This is what they call updates that work on sorting and re-processing indexed content, possibly using updated algorithms. It is not done to evaluate some specific aspect of their index, just a broad, overall update.

[Mentoren]

Okay...but I oversee a lifestyle site for men, among other things. Both this site and all competing sites have massively lost traffic. Every update aims to improve something...but what does this update aim to improve?

[ErrlyBird]

Okay...but I oversee a lifestyle site for men, among other things. Both this site and all competing sites have massively lost traffic. Every update aims to improve something...but what does this update aim to improve?

That's what we are all working on figuring out. Who got the bumps and why. Some of the competitors I saw take huge up trends are now coming back down. And my site is pretty much right where it left off after 2 weeks of extremely low traffic during the update. Headache is what it is.

[RedBar]

Who got the bumps and why.

AdWords (or whatever it's now called) advertisers, it's all about monetisation of the available space and G is experimenting all the time at whatever layout returns their highest return meanwhile keeping the advertisers happy with consistent converting traffic.

Why do people keep asking what is going on? This is precisely what I would do if I worked at G and actually do implement for clients' sites. I am always testing what works better and drives more enquiries.

G will not change any of this unless compelled to do so by law.

[ErrlyBird]

My niche is not allowed ads as we have the label of dangerous goods. So ads do not even play a role in SEO for my niche. Yet competitors and ourselves have seen massive fluxuations. You can't tell me its ads when we don't even get them.

[RedBar]

You can't tell me its ads when we don't even get them.

Is that solely in the US? In all States?

So, you sell a product(s) that is not allowed to advertise yet there is / was a "big" demand for until the recent update(s)?

Both you and your competitors have seen dramatic swings since the updates? Any ups or are they all downs? Replaced by inferior content or new good competitors?

Are they all US businesses which have been "promoted"?

Who / what has replaced you? If you've already answered this, apologies, I've not been here so much recently however I see you are trying to fathom-out some of these questions.