Google announced that on July 1, 2021 it began to roll out the July 2021 core update. We knew we would soon see another core update, and Google delivered this one a month after the June 2021 core update – which launched on June 2, 2021. This one seems to have started out pretty strong and many are seeing big changes with this update.
Some think what we saw on June 30th through July 1st may be related to the release of the core update. But if I would ask Google, they would say no, because this core update just started yesterday – not two days ago.
This update does seem to have kicked off pretty quickly with a lot of chatter in the past 12 hours or so and the tools are showing changes. More of what we are seeing in the what we’re seeing section of this story. I should note, the June core update was very slow to start out, unlike this July core update.
Danny Sullivan under the Search Liaison Twitter account posted “the July 2021 Core Update, previously announced, is now rolling out.” Danny added that “these typically take 1-2 weeks to finish.” Normally they take a full two weeks but the June core update ran on June 2nd and ended on June 12th – a 10 day period.
Here is the tweet announcing this rollout:
This core update, like the other core updates, is a global update impacting all languages across all regions.
Two Part Update: June and July Core Updates
As a reminder, Google said it released a core update in June on June 2nd through June 12th and planned to push out another core update next month – called the July 2021 core update, which happened on July 1st. Why didn’t Google release both the same time? Google said not all of the pieces are ready for that, so they pushed out what is ready in June with the June 2021 core update and then released this July core update as the last parts are now ready to be released for the July 2021 core update.
What is not ready? I asked Google and Google would not say. Google did say that if your site rankings changes with the June 2021 core update, you may see a reversal or shift (or not) with the July 2021 core update. I wonder how many sites will see changes that saw changes with the June update?
Here is what Google said last month on this topic:
Many Overlapping Updates
Even if you exclude the unconfirmed updates, including the June 30th update, the confirmed updates are many.
Google product reviews update began on April 8th and concludes on April 22nd
Google June core update began on June 2nd and ended on June 12th
Google Predator Update around June 10th?
Google page experience update started on June 15th and will roll out through the end of August
Google Spam update part one was on June 23rd
Google Spam update part two was on June 28th
Google July 2021 core update started on July 1st
I had this cute graphic made of the recent updates, I didn’t include all the unconfirmed updates in the graphic or the predator update since it was super specific (click to enlarge it):
The previous core update was a month ago on June 2nd named the June 2021 core update. The one before that was 6 months before the June update, on December 3, 2020 named the December 2020 core update. Before that was 7 month gap where on May 4, 2020, the May 2020 core update. The one prior to that was on January 13, 2020, the January 2020 core update and the one before that was on September 24, 2019, the September 2019 core update. Oh, before that was on June 3, 2019, the June 2019 core update and I can go on and on.
Improve After a Core Update
Did you get hit by this update, Google did give us advice on core updates and how to improve your site overall after seeing a negative outcome after a core update. Google reiterated that in this tweet:
Google also posted a new blog post on how and why Google does these updates. Google wrote “because there are so many incremental updates, it’s not useful for us to share details about all of them. However, we try to do so when we feel there is actionable information that site owners, content producers or others might consider applying, as was the case with both of the updates mentioned above.”
SEO Chatter: What We Are Seeing
Keep in mind, there is chatter from the June 30th through July 1st update that may be unrelated to this update. But there is renewed chatter from the past 20 hours or so at both WebmasterWorld and Black Hat World.
I also asked on Twitter what people are seeing and you can see the thread of responses on Twitter.
Search Tracking Tools:
Of the tools that are updated for this morning, they are all showing pretty big changes.
I’ll update them as the day goes on. Here are what the tracking tools that have been updated this morning are showing so far:
Forum discussion at Twitter, WebmasterWorld & Black Hat World.
