On September 12th, Google began rolling out its second broad core algorithm update of the year, the September 2022 Core Update. It’s been a few days since the update, but Google decided to roll out another algorithm update before it was completed. Product review update for September 2022.
As such, with the September 2022 Product Review Update currently rolling out, we felt safe to check the impact of the September 2022 Core Update at this time. Please note that the September 2022 Core Update has not yet been officially rolled out.
Data Providers for September 2022 Core Update
So far we have data from several data providers and the data seems to be fairly consistent across all of them. Both Semrush and RankRanger show that the September 2022 core update was a quick hit, but not as impactful as previous core updates.
sem rush. Semrush data shows that the September 2022 Core Update was a hit soon after it was announced. As for the volatility tracker, as shown below (or you can view it live with the Semrush Sensor tool). As you can see, the sensor detected he had increased volatility on September 12th. This he continued until the 13th and began to decline on the 14th.

“Overall, this update was much weaker than the May update, and weaker than the November update,” said Mordy Oberstein, communication advisor at Semrush. He showed this chart comparing updates.

With the September 2022 Core Update, Semrush noticed a 53% drop in Rank volatility compared to the May 2022 Core Update compared to the drop in volatility prior to the update. “For context, the November 2021 Core Update saw a significant 19% increase in rank volatility over the May 2022 Core Update. In other words, May was already significantly weaker than the update preceding it. , the September 2022 core update is significantly weaker across the board,” explains Mordy.
Here’s a chart showing the differences by niche:

Also, looking at Semrush’s “peak” data alone, the September update looks much weaker than the May update.

During this update, approximately 15% of the top 20 results were made up of URLs that previously ranked in the top 20. Compare that to just over 17% and 16% for the May 2022 Core Update and the November 2021 Core Update, respectively.

rank ranger. The RankRanger team will also be analyzing Google’s search results after the rollout of this September 2022 Core Update, allowing you to see how quickly the tool fetches search results (this is also live in the Rank Risk Index tool). In can be confirmed). RankRanger says the September 2022 core update has caused a “high level of volatility”. He also finds that they noticed the spike on September 13th, the day after the update was announced.

RankRanger noticed similar volatility between the September and May updates, but when digging into the top 3, top 5, and top 10 positions, the September update showed more rank volatility than the May update. is slightly smaller.
This graph shows the change in average position in Google Search by month.

This graph shows a comparison of the two updates.

RankRanger then drilled into each vertical to see volatility by niche or vertical.

RankRanger is owned by Similarweb, so we have Similarweb data to show the top winners and losers as well.


Shrike. Moz also released Mozcast data showing a spike on the 13th, the day after the announcement.

Moz’s Dr. Pete Myers said, “The first two days had moderately high volatility, but as with any informative content update, there was no clear peak and current volatility is slightly above the 30-day average. I am.”
systrixSISTRIX, another data provider that tracks changes in Google search results, has submitted the top 20 winners and losers for the September 2022 Core Update. These are US-based sites from the Sistrix data set.


May 2022 Core Update Details
SEO communityThe September 2022 Core Update was significant, but not nearly as great as the previous May 2022 Core Update. Early on, I covered the community reaction in one of his blog posts on the Search Engine Roundtable. This includes some of his early chatter from SEO, ranking charts, and social shares.
On Twitter you can find many examples of SEO sharing charts from clients. This update mostly shows the winners, but also the losers.
What to do if you get hit Google has provided advice on what to consider if you’ve been adversely affected by core updates in the past. No specific action to recover. In fact, a negative ranking impact does not indicate that there is a problem with the page. However, Google has provided a list of questions to consider when your site hits a core update. Google said it sees a bit of a recovery between core updates, but the biggest change will be after the next core update.
why you care. It’s often difficult to pinpoint what needs to be done to undo an algorithm hit that may have occurred on the site. am. What this data and our experience and advice to date has shown is that these core updates are broad and cover a lot of overall quality issues. The data above confirms this to be true. So when your site hits a core update, it’s a good idea to step away from it all and take a broader look at your website to see what you can do to improve your site as a whole.
Hopefully your company and your clients have done well with this update.
Google update details
You can read more about our coverage at Google Algorithm Updates history on Search Engine Land.

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