How the August 2023 Google core update compared to March 2023 core updates - Search Engine Land

Now that the Google August 2023 Core Update is done rolling out, we wanted to take a deeper dive on how this core update differed from previous Google core updates, specifically the March 2023 broad core update. This update was indeed a big one, and caused a lot of ranking volatility across many verticals in the Google search results. But this update was also surrounded by a very volatile set of weeks prior to the update, making the update itself feel a bit more muted than previous updates.

August 2023 core update. As a reminder, the Google August 2023 broad core update started rolling out August 22, 2023, and was completed 16 days later on September 7, 2023.

Data providers on the August 2023 core update

Semrush. Semrush data showed that the August 2023 core update hit a peak of 9.3 in terms of their Semrush Sensor data volatility, which occurred on August 25th, a few days after the update officially started to roll out. When you compare that to the March 2023 core update, that update only reached about 8. Here is a look at the peaks for both updates over the period of time they rolled out:

You can clearly see that while the March 2023 core update had wide volatility spikes, the August 2023 core update did not. It was just continuously heated before, during and after the update finished rolling out with some larger peaks on August 25th and on September 7th, the day it completed.

This next graph compares the peak volatility across verticals between the March and August 2023...

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