October 2023 core update: dates, what changed and what to do

What Google changed#

Google released the October 2023 core update on 5 October 2023 and announced it on the Search Status Dashboard without a dedicated Search Central post. Its standing definition applies: core updates are “significant, broad changes to our search algorithms and systems” that “don’t target specific sites or individual web pages.”

Google gave one more detail a month later. When it launched the November 2023 core update, it said that update “involves an improvement to a different core system than last month,” meaning the October update and the November update changed different parts of core ranking.

When it rolled out#

The Google Search Status Dashboard logged the release on 5 October 2023 at 08:54 PDT, noting the rollout could take up to two weeks. Google posted on 19 October 2023 that the rollout was complete as of that day, a total of 13 days and 23 hours.

The October 2023 spam update started a day earlier, on 4 October, and ended on the evening of 19 October 2023. The two rollouts overlapped almost exactly, so timing alone cannot separate a core update effect from a spam update effect in October 2023.

What is known about its impact#

Google did not publish impact figures for this update. Its framing is that pages which move down after a core update “aren’t necessarily bad”; other pages may simply serve the searcher better. Treat any percentage you see attributed to this update as a third-party estimate, and check its method.

What site owners should do#

Google’s standing core update guidance is the relevant advice, since it published nothing specific to this update:

• Wait until the rollout has finished, then at least one more full week.
• Compare the week after with a week before the update began, not with the rollout window.
• A small drop (position 2 to 4) needs no drastic action; a large, sustained drop warrants a site-wide self-assessment against Google’s helpful content questions.
• Avoid quick fixes. Improve content in ways that help readers; delete content only as a last resort.
• Recovery can take months and may not show until a later core update.

How to check whether it affected you#

In Search Console, set the Performance report to cover September to November 2023 and compare clicks for the week before 4 October with the week starting 27 October. Starting from 4 October excludes the spam update too; if you find a drop, check the site against Google’s spam policies as well as its helpful content questions. The Google Algorithm Updates timeline lists every confirmed update with its dates.

Related updates#

• The August 2023 core update was the core update before it.
• The November 2023 core update was the next one.
• The October 2023 spam update overlapped this rollout.