Right before the big Thanksgiving Black Friday and Cyber Monday holiday season Google decided to flip the switch and roll out a core update. Google just announced that it will begin rolling out later today the November 2021 Core Update. Google has updated us that the update started to roll out at about 11am ET on November 17, 2021.
Yes, I am surprised it is rolling out just a week or so before Thanksgiving and it will continue to likely take two weeks to roll out, which means it will roll out during Black Friday and Cyber Monday online shopping.
As I wrote this morning, I expected Google to wait until at least December to roll it out.
Later today, we are releasing a broad core update, as we do several times per year. It is called the November 2021 Core Update. Our guidance about such updates is here:https://t.co/0LAL28ueDq
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) November 17, 2021
To be fair, you'd likely see the impact within a few days, as Danny Sullivan of Google said with previous core updates - see tweet below. But still, if you stocked up on inventory and hired staff for the sales surge coming up next week - and you lost those rankings tomorrow or in the next few days - you are in a pickle:
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
I am also surprised the Google Search Central account announced it and not the Search Liaison account. John Mueller said it fit the Search Central account better:
We thought it better fits to the Search Central account.
— 🧀 John 🧀 (@JohnMu) November 17, 2021
Just yesterday, Google said it does not know when the next core update will be released... Funny, right?
Again, I am shocked and so are others:
Oh boy. Here we go! I'm surprised with the timing... It's right before Thanksgiving weekend, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, etc. Wow, get ready. This should be interesting. :) https://t.co/J1SBQsKb0d
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) November 17, 2021
And yes, this will take a couple weeks to roll out and you won't necessarily see those changes on this morning. But it will roll out during the shopping season - but like I said above, you probably will see the bulk of the force (or lack thereof) of this update within the next few days.
That seems unlikely, usually this takes 1-2 weeks to fully roll out even after we start.
— 🧀 John 🧀 (@JohnMu) November 17, 2021
Update, it is now rolling out at about 11am ET:
The November 2021 Core Update is now rolling out live. As is typical with these updates, it will typically take about one to two weeks to fully roll out.
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) November 17, 2021
John added:
I just added the confirmation that the roll-out had started. I'd still be a bit surprised if a drop a few hours ago was related to that, but I also wouldn't rule it out completely. I'm tempted to check the URL with the team, but that would just start a pile-on of requests :-/
— 🧀 John 🧀 (@JohnMu) November 17, 2021
Google has said before it would not release updates before this holiday season. Google said in 2020 it won't release a core update before the holidays, Matt Cutts said in 2013 they try to minimize updates before/during holidays and even Panda updates took a break for the holidays.
Danny Sullivan from Google responded to these concerns - I won't add my commentary to his response:
I totally get the concern some might have about an update, especially when there's often any number of "The sky is falling!" tweets that people make, sometimes with fun GIFs, and meant to be fun, but others that act like an update is a negative event for everyone...
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) November 17, 2021
The reality is core updates make no huge change for most. People shouldn't be panicking; maybe more tweets reassuring people would be more helpful than the virtual red alert. Guidance about core updates hasn't changed. Been doing best practices out there for ages, should be good.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) November 17, 2021
The previous core update we had was July 2021 and then a month prior to that with the June core update. The one before that was 6 months before the June update, on December 3, 2020 named the December 2020 core update. Before that was 7 month gap where on May 4, 2020, the May 2020 core update. The one prior to that was on January 13, 2020, the January 2020 core update and the one before that was on September 24, 2019, the September 2019 core update. Oh, before that was on June 3, 2019, the June 2019 core update and I can go on and on.
Are you surprised?
Update: I made several updates to this story over the day, here is Danny Sullivan from Google with a bit more on the timing:
But we'll give it more consideration. The point of any update isn't to cause concerns. If we can move timings around to ease those, we do look to that, and certainly we'll take this feedback in mind.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) November 17, 2021
Forum discussion at Twitter.
