Google Search has started to roll out the second broad core update of the 2023 year, and this one is named the August 2023 broad core update. It started on August 22, 2023, at about 1:30 pm ET and as you know, can take about two weeks to roll out. I will add, this update has not yet been seen as a big one, but it has only been about 12 hours since it launched.

Google’s August 2023 core update is now rolling out and may take up to two weeks to complete.

This is the second broad core algorithm update of 2023; the previous core update was the March 2023 core update, which started rolling out March 15 and completed on March 28. It has been over five months since Google’s March 2023 core update.

The announcement. Google announced this on Twitter and updated its search updates page:

• “Released the August 2023 core update. The rollout may take up to 2 weeks to complete.”

What to do if you are hit. Google has given advice on what to consider if you are negatively impacted by a core update in the past:

• There aren’t specific actions to take to recover. A negative rankings impact may not signal anything is wrong with your pages.
• Google has offered a list of questions to consider if your site is hit by a core update.
• Google said you can see a bit of a recovery between core updates but the biggest change would be after another core update.

Why we care: Whenever Google updates its search ranking algorithms, your site can do better or worse in the search results. Knowing when Google makes these updates gives us something to point to to understand if it was something you changed on your website or something Google changed with its ranking algorithm. Today, we know Google has released a core ranking update, so keep an eye on your analytics and rankings over the next couple of weeks.

We will keep an eye on this update over the coming days and keep you updated on what the SEO community is noticing. But so far, it seems to have started slowly.

Please remember that these updates can take about two weeks to roll out, and sometimes, the changes you see within the first few days are not where things stick. So be patient and wait for the roll-out to complete before panicking.

Google August 2023 Core Update:

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

• Name: Google August 2023 Broad Core Update
• Launched: August 22, 2023 at around 1:30 pm ET
• Rollout: It will take about one to two weeks to roll out
• 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.

In Conclusion:

Google announces rollout of August 2023 core search update, which may take weeks to complete. Google has launched its August 2023 core update, aiming to improve search results. A drop in page performance post-update doesn’t indicate an issue; it’s about content relevance.