By Today the “Google Search Central” Twitter handle announced the release of a new Core Update also known as a “Broad Core Update”. These are updates to Google’s search ranking algorithms and might include refreshing of data about pages and web documents. There is also a chance that websites hurt in the last Core Update from the search engine will rebound somewhat during this Core Update.
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
Interestingly, it was the Google Search Central Twitter Handle making this announcement when previous announcements about Core Updates had been made by Google’s Danny Sullivan under the “Search Liaison” Twitter handle.
Many are concerned about the timing and how this might impact small ecommerce retailers as the two biggest USA shopping days of the year will come in just over a week’s time. Danny Sullivan, one-time journalim entrepreneur and Google critic now Google employee, is urging a different take saying this update won’t negatively impact most.
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
Here is everything we know about the Google Search November 2021 Core Update
November 2021 Core Update Vitals
- Date Started: November 17th, 2021 (USA)
- Date Completed: November 30th, 2021
- First Impact Reported: Unknown
- Most Impacted Industry(ies): Unknown
- Most Impacted Site(s): Unknown
- Most Impacted Website Types: Unknown
- Most Impacted Content Types: Unknown
- SEO Change Proven to Improve: Unknown
November 2021 Core Update Facts
- Released a little over one week before Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping holidays.
- Update is NOT site-specific, same as all other known Core Updates.
- This core update may take 1 to 2 weeks to fully roll out and impact websites.
- Not all websites or documents will get a ranking increase or decrease from this update.
Media Coverage of Google’s November 2021 Core Update
- Search Engine Roundtable – Google November 2021 Core Update Rolling Out Later Today
- Search Engine Roundtable – Google: The November 2021 Core Update Done Rolling Out (Updated)
First possible impact
None yet.
Transparency Report
We add this section when an update may have adversely impacted our clients or our portfolio of websites.
The Google November Core Update impacted roughly 37 documents we manage across all of our clients and our portfolio of websites and test websites.
Here is what was affected:
- 1 money / transactional page
- 1 homepage
- Approximately 35 blog posts / articles
The money / transactional page affected lost 3 ranking spots and has no images on it (outside of the website’s template).
The homepage impacted lost 1 ranking position of significant value (P1 to P2) and we have no apparent reasoning for this except that the document which took over the number 1 position is from a major multi-national corporation and our client is a small business based in one major American city.
The blog / article content affected was mostly Listicles (articles in list format). Our article on Facebook’s horrific 2FA issue (which has been ongoing since 2019) lost out to Facebook’s official documents on the matter (even though they are not helpful). This page has lost rankings across related keywords in past updates but rebounded within a few days.
Final Thoughts
- Overall organic search traffic to money / transactional pages managed by our clients increased during this update by an average of 279%. The one client which had a homepage and money / transactional page impacted still gained during the update with an average increase of 111% to their money / transactional pages. This business is also seasonal and in their off-season at the moment.
- This is the first Google Core Update to negatively impact any of the documents we manage for more than 1 week.
- There is a chance that images, image quality, or image relevancy have gained in importance for the homepages / service pages of local small businesses. This is already on our roadmap for the client and will be updated soon.
- There is also a chance that their large multi-national competitor has invested in SEO tactics such as link building which may or may not have driven the noted changes and may or may not provide long-term difficulties for the client moving forward (if it is part of the cause AND competitor has done significant investment AND competitor didn’t get awful links this could become an issue).
Google November 2021 Core Update Help
- Do not panic. I know that sounds easy to say, but panic caused by a Google update rarely solves problems with rankings.
- Since this update has the chance of hurting ecommerce brands disproportionately given the timing, you should take steps to make sure you can drive as many sales as possible through alternative channels sntead of just expecting your organic sales to spike. Make sure you have a Google Merchant Center account setup and a shopping feed ready, plan out a few PPC ad campaigns, or even look into other sources of organic/paid traffic like TikTok videos, Reddit Ads, or finding relevant Facebook Groups.
- Read Google’s guidance on Core Updates from their website here: What webmasters should know about Google’s core updates
- Hire an awesome SEO agency either one in your local area or one talented at finding and fixing issues related to algorithm updates *hint* you are reading our website *hint*.