In September 2023, a significant content update shook the online landscape, leaving many small website proprietors, bloggers, SEO practitioners, and others reeling. Hope flickered anew with the arrival of the March 2024 core update, yet it seems that the recovery they yearned for remains elusive. Despite the ongoing rollout, there’s scant evidence of any site reclaiming lost ground from the tumult of September 2023.
Our exhaustive monitoring of various forums and social platforms reveals a prevailing narrative: silence on the front of recovery. Comments inundating these spaces predominantly echo tales of continued struggle post-September update, with March’s core update exacerbating visibility woes in Google Search.
Notably, Glenn Gabe’s recent findings, shared on Platform X, paint a stark picture. Among the 200+ sites he diligently tracked in the aftermath of the impactful content update, not a single one has managed to claw back lost ground. Zero recoveries—a sobering reality reiterated by Glenn’s data-driven analysis.
He presented a selection of charts showcasing various sites affected by the transformative content update of September 2023, detailing their visibility trends spanning from then up until yesterday.
Now, as Glenn said in his post:
With a few weeks remaining for the core update to complete its rollout, there’s a glimmer of hope, albeit tinged with scepticism, that the helpful content aspects within this update might manifest towards its conclusion, potentially heralding some recoveries.
Google’s advice to await the update’s conclusion before taking action resonates, yet they also acknowledge the imperfect nature of these updates, pledging to gather feedback post-rollout. While the core update continues its gradual rollout, the chapter on spam updates has closed, leaving behind the sting of manual actions for many.
Glenn added these important points:
