March 2023 Core Update Impact

On March 15, 2023, Google announced the release of the March 2023 Core Update. The update, the first since the September 2022 Core Updatewas rolled out on March 28th and brought a significant amount of rank changes.

With this update there were a few things to note: 1) the amount of chatter in the industry regarding the accuracy of the update 2) the amount of volatility compared to the previous core update

Let’s explore both.

How volatile was the March 2023 core update?

The update presented a strong spike in rank volatility that peaked on March 16 as the Semrush sensor indicated a volatility score of 8.2.

I believe the behavior seen here, in that there is no longer a long period of volatility during these updates, has become the new norm, just like something I noticed back in the November 2021 Core Update. This stands in contrast to when the sensor would follow several days of high volatility if an update was rolled out and is an interesting pattern to note.

In terms of the level of volatility per se, the March 2023 update was significantly more volatile than the previous core update back in September 2022.

To be more specific, the March 2023 Core Update saw 74% more peak volatility on desktop and 94% more peak volatility on mobile compared to the September 2022 Core Update.

Of course, this does not mean that specific sites were more significantly affected during the March 2023 Core Update. It is entirely possible for a specific site to have a greater impact...