March 2019 core update: dates, the Florida 2 name and what to do

What Google changed#

Google confirmed the update on 13 March 2019 in a post from its SearchLiaison account on X: “This week, we released a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year.” It added that its guidance on such updates had not changed, and linked to earlier posts on core updates. Google did not describe any specific ranking change.

Google never used the name Florida 2. According to Search Engine Roundtable, Brett Tabke, the founder of WebmasterWorld, named it “Google Florida Update 2” in a WebmasterWorld thread, because it arrived a week after his Pubcon Florida conference, as the original Florida update of 2003 had. Search Engine Roundtable noted there was no technical link between the two updates.

On 15 March 2019 Google SearchLiaison posted: “Our name for this update is ‘March 2019 Core Update.’” Google said the format “tells you the type of update it was and when it happened,” and it has named core updates by month and year ever since.

When it rolled out#

Google’s Danny Sullivan replied on 13 March 2019 that the update “began yesterday”, which puts the start at 12 March 2019, and that it was global, rolling out everywhere at the same time. He said a rollout like this can take a week or longer. Google did not post when it finished, so the end date is not stated by Google.

What is known about its impact#

Google published no impact figures for this update. Its standing position, set out in its core update guidance, is that there may be nothing wrong with pages that lose ground: other pages may simply serve the searcher better. Treat any winner or loser percentage attributed to this update as a third-party estimate.

What site owners should do#

Google’s current core update guidance says core updates “don’t target specific sites or individual web pages,” and that pages which move down are not necessarily bad. Google’s core ranking systems are still in use today. The practical steps are:

• Wait until a core update has finished, then at least one more full week, before judging.
• Compare a week after the update with a week before it began.
• Take no drastic action for small drops; for a large, sustained drop, assess the whole site against Google’s helpful content self-assessment questions.
• Expect recovery, if it comes, to take time and often a later core update.

How to check whether it affected you#

Search Console keeps only 16 months of data, so its reports no longer cover March 2019. Use archived analytics exports or rank tracking data from February to April 2019 and compare the weeks either side of 12 March. The Google Algorithm Updates timeline lists the updates around it, so you can rule out other changes first.

Related updates#

• The August 2018 core update was the previous core update.
• The June 2019 core update was the next one.
• The original Florida update of 2003 gave this one its nickname.