Google November 2023 Core Update Is Live

Google November 2023 Core Update

Only two weeks after the October 2023 core update finished rolling out, we have a new core update rolling out - the November 2023 core update. This is a different update to the core update, Google said, "We have different systems that are considered core to our ranking process; this month's core update involves an improvement to a different core system than last month."

The new Google November 2023 core update started to roll out yesterday, November 2, at 3:09 pm ET. Like most Google updates, it can take about two weeks to roll out. This is the fourth core update of the 2023 year, and the eighth official Google algorithm update of the 2023 year.

Google wrote it, "Released the November 2023 core update. The rollout may take up to 2 weeks to complete." Here is the tweet with the announcement:

Today we released the November 2023 core update. We'll update our ranking release history page when the rollout is complete: https://t.co/hgjEkfpbA2

Related to this, we’ve posted a Q&A on Google Search updates as a refresher about how updates work: https://t.co/N5p3KsJ0ta
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) November 2, 2023

Felt It Coming

Yesterday, I wrote about the bug with the October 2023 core update and noted how it was unusual for the charts to spike with a fix to Google Discover issues. Well maybe that was signs that the new core update was brewing?

Some might think Google is fixing the October core update or that this bug with Discover is related to this November core update but Google is saying it is unrelated. Who really knows...

Google says no:

It's separate and was resolved already.
— I am John - ⭐ ⭐ LIVE ⭐ ⭐ (@JohnMu) November 2, 2023

Oh and we have a reviews update coming next week.

Google November 2023 Core Update Quick Facts:

Here are the most important things that we know right now in short form:

Name: Google November 2023 Broad Core Update
Launched: November 2, 2023 at around 3 pm ET
Rollout: Finished on November 28, 2023 at around 11:30 am ET
Targets: It looks at all types of content
Penalty: It is not a penalty, it promotes or rewards great web pages
Global: This is a global update impacting all regions, in all languages.
Impact: Google would not tell me what percentage of queries or searches were impacted by this update but so far, this seems to be a typical core update that reaches wide and the impact is fast.
Discover: Core updates impact Google Discover and other features, also feature snippets and more.
Recover: If you were hit by this, then you will need to look at your content and see if you can do better with Google's core update advice.
Refreshes: Google will do periodic refreshes to this algorithm but may not communicate those updates in the future. Maybe this is what we saw the past couple of weeks or all those unconfirmed Google updates.

Recent Google Search Updates

Google has been busy with pushing out search updates. Google is rolled out the October 2023 spam update. Google also rolled out the October 2023 core update last month. And Google fixed a bug with that core update that was impacting Google Discover traffic a couple of days ago..

We had an unconfirmed update on October 25th and October 27th and also around October 1st. Google did not confirm this update, but some are speculating it is either a tremor from the helpful content update or an early spam update consequence.

The September 2023 Google helpful content update started on September 14th and finished rolling out on September 28th.

And it was only 6 weeks ago when Google started to roll out the August 2023 core update. That update started on August 22nd and was completed on September 7th, only four weeks ago.

Plus, to add to all of this, Google had a massive indexing issue on October 4.

If that isn't enough for you we have a reviews update coming next week.

You got your work cut out for you, SEOs...

Previous Broad Core Updates

Here is a list of the most recent core updates we've seen since Google started to confirm them. Previously we nicknamed them Phantom updates or unconfirmed updates.

October 2023 Core Update: October 5, 2023 through October 19, 2023
August 2023 Core Update: August 22, 2023 through September 7, 2023
March 2023 Core Update: March 15, 2023 through March 28, 2023
September 2022 Core Update: September 12, 2022 through September 26, 2022
May 2022 Core Update: May 25, 2022 through June 9, 2022
November 2021 Core Update: November 17, 2021 through November 30, 2021
July 2021 Core Update: July 1, 2021 through July 12, 2021
June 2021 Core Update: June 2, 2021 through June 12, 2021
December 2020 Core Update: December 3, 2020 through December 16, 2020
May 2020 Core Update: May 4, 2020 through May 18, 2020
January 2020 Core Update: January 13, 2020 through mostly January 17, 2020
September 2019 Core Update: September 24, 2019
Google June 2019 Core Update: June 3, 2019 through June 8, 2019

SEO Chatter On November 2023 Core Update

Here is some of the chatter from WebmasterWorld and the comments here:

Seeing drops in the SERPs since yesterday. Anyone know what’s going on?
Some sites are seeing gains and lot seeing drops. Is this the new norm?
I’ve been doing quite well with all the updates except for whatever is going on right now.

OK, I'm gonna be serious - is this the single most heated-up timeframe in terms of algo updates?
That makes it 3 core updates in ~2 months, not to mention the HCU and spam. I've been around since early 2015ish and I don't remember things going as haywire.

And in the next few weeks we can look forward to another review update as well...
What does Google's search team actually do between updates? Soon, that will only be enough for a trip to the toilet.

regarding the core update released today, there's always that feeling of hope it'll be the core update that improves things. 0 for 3 so far in 2023 core updates. no negative impact with HCU though, so there's that.

I'm also worried now... The past 24 hours when many of us reported a sharp drop in rankings and traffic... Was this the effect of the core update? If it is and it stays like this, we're fucked. Time will tell... Guess we will wait a few days.

Awful day, again. Cheap AI created YouTube videos and webpages, even books are now outranking genuine content.

I’m actually seeing a slight uptick in traffic since the update was announced. It’s obviously super early.

I knew something was up...traffic up 22% today

Looks like attendance is dropping again today... I've already lost 50% anyway. attendance and 50 percent of revenue. What happens next? Maybe I will lose 100% attendance and 100%. percent of revenue?

New update, so that’s what I’m tanking this time, let’s see after the rollout complete. I’m doing also some clean up on website, not for SEO but for me, and customers :D But my overall traffic from the hosting is increasing, so google going down (-20%), traffic going up (+30% since a few days) from WP Engine billable visits. Traffic should come from somewhere…. (They don’t counts bots).

increased traffic +15% but all Zombies (FZM). google doesn´t care about quality anymore.Its just a weightning where is the negative break even point that "normal" poeple are overwrought with ads.

Crazy drop today, I hope they undo the mess they did with the Oct update.

Are you kidding me? Another core update was released today. https://t.co/1nmH2ZDhho pic.twitter.com/w8WwoR871K
— Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) November 2, 2023

Wow

It is not even BFCM yet

✅ 3 More major updates

SGE rollout next?https://t.co/CAQ2AS6LMS pic.twitter.com/u8wHm63MA8
— Andy Beard (@AndyBeard) November 2, 2023

The Alligator November Update is here 🐊😱 https://t.co/7kIVV6R4Cq
— Aleyda Solis 🕊️ (@aleyda) November 2, 2023

OMG, the Nov core update is rolling out! -> "We have different systems that are considered core to our ranking process; this month's core update involves an improvement to a different core system than last month." AND, a reviews update is rolling out next week. Then no more… https://t.co/V6pSrTZ3EB
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) November 2, 2023

Guys I'm running out of funny jokes to make when you release these updates, please let me rest https://t.co/C3hGX2muSl
— Chloe is doing #NaNoWriMo (@chloeivyroseseo) November 2, 2023

Google: QUICK, how do we distract from the 🐊-gate?
⬇️⬇️⬇️ https://t.co/f8wPyI8VDa
— Areej (@areej_abuali) November 2, 2023

The day after the @verge article??? https://t.co/8TzN864w1v pic.twitter.com/80DBsDz85T
— Shiver Maker Jason Brown 🇺🇦 (@keyserholiday) November 2, 2023