{"id":4077,"date":"2023-04-03T16:17:49","date_gmt":"2023-04-03T16:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/2023\/04\/03\/3-ways-to-recover-from-a-core-google-update\/"},"modified":"2025-06-03T09:03:48","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T09:03:48","slug":"3-ways-to-recover-from-a-core-google-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/2023\/04\/03\/3-ways-to-recover-from-a-core-google-update\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Ways to Recover from a Core Google Update"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"lead\">Google is known for constantly tweaking its algorithm to improve its search index and give users the best possible results. Many of these changes slip under the radar, but a few times a year, Google releases major updates that we all need to be aware of. These are known as Core Updates, and they have the potential to significantly impact your performance in search. <\/span><span data-ccp-props='{\"201341983\":0,\"335559739\":160,\"335559740\":259}'>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>As it happens, Google just recently finished rolling out the <a href=\"https:\/\/status.search.google.com\/products\/rGHU1u87FJnkP6W2GwMi\/history\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">March 2023 Core Update<\/a>. So, if you\u2019ve noticed a drop in traffic, let\u2019s take a look at 3 ways you can recover your performance.<\/p>\n<h2>\u00a0#1 &#8211; Update your content<\/h2>\n<p>Over the years, Google has made it clear that if a core update has affected your site, it doesn\u2019t always mean there\u2019s something that immediately needs fixing. It could be the case that you haven\u2019t done anything wrong, but other sites may have done things better.<\/p>\n<p>For this reason, it\u2019s important not to panic and go around your website changing things for the sake of it. It\u2019s more likely that you\u2019ll benefit from making a small number of targeted optimisations in specific areas of your website.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s Google\u2019s official advice to those who have been affected by a Core Update:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe suggest focusing on ensuring the best content you can. That\u2019s what our algorithms seek to reward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So, our first recovery method is to update your content, here are some ways you can do this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Make sure your content is trustworthy and authoritative \u2013 answer a visitor\u2019s needs in an in-depth manner with correct, verifiable information.<\/li>\n<li>Include relevant keywords that will attract users and encourage them to stay engaged.<\/li>\n<li>Mark up your page with schema to help search engines better understand your content.<\/li>\n<li>Break up your text into digestible chunks with clear titles and headings.<\/li>\n<li>Compress images and remove unused code to increase page loading speed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Once you\u2019ve covered these key areas, your content will be in a better position to perform well post-update. But if, after some time, you\u2019re still not seeing the desired results, you may need to dig a bit deeper. Google has provided a <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/blog\/2019\/08\/core-updates#focus-on-content\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">detailed checklist of content-related questions<\/a> to help in this regard.<\/p>\n<h2>\u00a0#2 \u2013 Group your content by topic<\/h2>\n<p>How you organise the content on a website is almost as important as the quality of the content itself. It\u2019s essential that both users and search engines can quickly and easily navigate through your site.<\/p>\n<p>By grouping your content together into clear and organised groups, you can achieve this goal. You may also find that this makes it easier to ensure that you\u2019ve covered your subject matter in more detail. By starting from a broad topic and working down into individual pieces, you can create a hierarchy of content that\u2019s simple to follow, review and manage.<\/p>\n<p>So, if your content is scattered across your site and it\u2019s difficult to locate important pages, this might be the cause of a drop in traffic. Unfortunately, producing high-quality content alone may not be enough to withstand a core Google update.<\/p>\n<p>Think about how you can begin to group your existing content into main categories and sub-categories that follow a clear, logical path. And when you come to create new content, spend some time planning how it\u2019ll fit into your new structure in an organised manner.<\/p>\n<h2>\u00a0#3 \u2013 Improve internal linking<\/h2>\n<p>Internal linking is a highly effective way to help users navigate through your website and find the content they\u2019re looking for. It also allows search engines to discover more of your content and understand the relationship between pages.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve already covered grouping content together, which is one form of internal linking. But there are other ways you can implement this technique to boost your site\u2019s performance:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Adding key\/underperforming pages into the main navigation or footer.<\/li>\n<li>Run a technical audit to identify broken internal links, <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/2022\/11\/29\/technical-seo-basics-redirect-chains-loops\/\">redirect chains and loops<\/a>, or orphaned pages (pages that aren\u2019t linked to any other page or section of your website).<\/li>\n<li>Make sure all pages within your site can be reached in 3 clicks or fewer. If they can\u2019t, add more internal links leading to them.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/2022\/11\/18\/a-simple-guide-to-anchor-text-optimisation\/\">Optimise your anchor text<\/a>. Avoid using phrases like \u2018click here\u2019 and \u2018read more\u2019 as it\u2019s better to provide specific context explaining where your link is taking the user.<\/li>\n<li>Link to important pages directly from your homepage.<\/li>\n<li>Make sure you have <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/2023\/03\/01\/how-to-submit-a-sitemap-to-google-a-beginners-guide\/\">submitted a sitemap to Google.\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Internal links also help to spread link equity from one page to another. Link equity or \u2018link juice\u2019 is a level of value or authority that is passed from one page when it links to another.<\/p>\n<p>If you have a page on your website that you know performs well, you can use it to boost underperforming pages by linking to them and passing along the link equity.<\/p>\n<p>Ready to turn things around?<\/p>\n<p>If you have been impacted by the March Core Google Update, or any other update for that matter, the most important thing is not to panic. Remember that during the update period, it\u2019s normal for rankings to temporarily fluctuate. Even after an update has finished rolling out, it can still take some time for things to settle.<\/p>\n<p><strong>If your rankings still haven\u2019t recovered, feel free to <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/contact\/\">get in touch<\/a> with us. Our <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/services\/seo\/\">SEO team<\/a> can perform a full audit of your site to see what might be causing the issue and help get your website back on track!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google is known for constantly tweaking its algorithm to improve its search index and give users the best possible results. Many of these changes slip under the radar, but a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":4078,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[],"related_service":[44],"related_industry":[],"class_list":["post-4077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seo"],"acf":[],"card":"<article class=\"wp-component-card wp-component-card--dark wp-component-card--resource wp-component-card--post wp-component-card--full-width            wp-component-card--link js-card-link\n        \">\n            <div class=\"wp-component-card__image\">\n            <img width=\"456\" height=\"566\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/03\/Coast-Marketing_Coreupdate_social.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-card-1-col size-card-1-col\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/03\/Coast-Marketing_Coreupdate_social.jpeg 456w, https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/03\/Coast-Marketing_Coreupdate_social-242x300.jpeg 242w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 456px) 100vw, 456px\" \/>        <\/div>\n        <div class=\"wp-component-card__content\">\n        <div class=\"wp-component-card__content-top\">\n                                                    <p class=\"wp-component-card__eyebrow\">\n                    Blog                <\/p>\n                        <a href='https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/2023\/04\/03\/3-ways-to-recover-from-a-core-google-update\/'>\n        <h2 class='wp-component-card__title'>\n            3 Ways to Recover from a Core Google Update\n        <\/h2>\n    <\/a>        <\/div>\n                    <div class=\"wp-component-card__content-bottom\">\n                                    <p class=\"wp-component-card__description\">\n                        Google is known for constantly tweaking its algorithm to improve its search index and give users the best possible results. Many of these changes slip under the radar, but a&hellip;                    <\/p>\n                                                                    <div class=\"wp-component-card__meta\">\n                                                    <p class=\"wp-component-card__date\">\n                                03 April 2023                            <\/p>\n                                                                            <div class=\"wp-component-card__terms\">\n                                                                                            <div class=\"wp-component-tags__tag\">\n                SEO            <\/div>\n                                                                                                            <\/div>\n                                            <\/div>\n                                            <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n<\/article>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4077"},{"taxonomy":"related_service","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/related_service?post=4077"},{"taxonomy":"related_industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/related_industry?post=4077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}