There is a lot of speculation around the March 2019 core update that started on March 12th that it reversed what the Medic update did on August 1, 2018. While many sites did see gains after dropping from the August 1st update, many did not.
I would not call this a reversal - I would call this an update to the Google core ranking algorithm and thus, with any one who got hit on previously passed core updates, some may see their rankings improve, some may see nothing and some may see it get worse. That is exactly what we have been seeing.
In fact, the survey results (please take our survey over here) now have over 330 responses and I went back to a lot of those that got hit by the Medic Update and asked them if they recovered. Less than 60% said they saw a recovery:
When I asked Google if this was a reversal, they didn't say it was. They just said "We're constantly improving our algorithms and build forward to improve." So yea, they didn't reverse anything specific, just continued to make improvements to their algorithms.
We even see individual examples from SEOs sharing both successes and failures (not that these are the SEOs managing these specific sites but they have access to their data):
I've been heavily digging into the latest core update. There are many sites that saw improvement after August drops & sites that decreased after August gains. But, NOT ALL did that. Here's an ex of a site that dropped MORE after a Medic hit (past 30 days + past year of trending): pic.twitter.com/CHVvyGGagH
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 18, 2019
So, do you think this company is having a good morning? :) There are some big swings based on the update already. But we're early in, and it can take some time to settle down... so let's see if the surge continues. This site got hammered by the Medic update. pic.twitter.com/dK96ReEkm0
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 14, 2019
Of course, by now you probably saw the Sistrix blog post that said "What’s interesting here is that many of the affected domains (75% of this sample) were also affected by the big updates of 2018." I'll have more data from other providers on that on Search Engine Land this morning - plus more details from Google there in the next couple of hours, I hope.
Seeing a couple of cases of dramatic recovery on March 12 of sites that were hit hard on August 1st, 2018, but hard to tell if they're anecdotal. Also seeing plenty of sites hit Aug 1 that didn't recover and some that declined more.
— Dr. Pete Meyers (@dr_pete) March 18, 2019
In short - this was not a simple code revert from Google. Google updates their core search algorithm which has resulted in some sites that were negatively impacted in previous updates to benefit, while others did not.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Black Hat World.
Here are all our current stories as of March 27th on the Google core update from March:
- Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update On March 12 (Florida 2), March 13, 2019
- When Naming The Google 3/12 Broad Core Ranking Update Florida 2, March 14, 2019
- Google Names The 3/12 Update The "March 2019 Core Update", March 15, 2019
- Speculation Around The Google March 2019 Core Update, March 15, 2019
- Survey: Tell Us How You Were Impacted By The Google March 2019 Core Update, March 15, 2019
- Google March 2019 Core Update Had Many Reversals But It Was Not A Reversal, March 18, 2019
- Google March 2019 Core Update Myth Busting From Google, March 19, 2019
- Google Search Algorithm Update Fluctuations From March 20th to 22nd, March 25, 2019
- Revealing The Google March 2019 Core Update Survey Results, March 26, 2019
