A lot of folks were thinking that Google in order to bolster the helpful content update rolled out a core update right after the helpful content update was done. That was not the case, as we covered before.
It was just that Google had a core update ready to go and now that Google tries not to overlap updates while other updates are rolling out, it waited to push that forward after the helpful content update was done.
And don't be surprised to see Google roll out the fifth product reviews update days after the September core update is done rolling out. Danny really works hard to make sure these updates do not overlap.
He repeated this on Friday on Twitter saying "We’ve worked very hard to keep updates separated from each other, or as little overlap as possible, to help creators understand more."
He also reiterated it is not a coincidence that this rolled out after the helpful content update because of that but not because Google wants to bolster one update with another update. He said, "So no, not a coincidence we are due a core update but said let’s wait on that until the helpful content update has rolled out." "I get some folks are trying to read more into things that aren’t there, and that’s always going to be a fact of SEO life. But if the point was to purposely confuse or whatever, we could roll multiple update on the very same day. We’ve worked to do the opposite," he added.
I get some folks are trying to read more into things that aren’t there, and that’s always going to be a fact of SEO life. But if the point was to purposely confuse or whatever, we could roll multiple update on the very same day. We’ve worked to do the opposite…
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) September 16, 2022
Here is more from Danny on this topic:
And when it’s unavoidable for updates to overlap, we have worked to space them apart as much as possible so people might have a better idea of what might have caused a particular change (and for many sites, updates cause no change at all).
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) September 16, 2022
So stay tuned for the September 2022 core update to finish rollout and for it to be followed by yet another update.
Oh, and as Glenn Gabe said, yes, we had situations in the past where we had many updates rolling out over each other and it made it hard for SEOs to understand which update impacted their site over another update. I made a chart once of a period of time of all the overlapping updates, I can't find it now, if you find it, add it to the comments please.
Yes, a broad core update rolling out right after the HCU is wild. But imagine if they were together? Or worse, the next PRU rolling out with the HCU and a broad core update. Yes, that could happen. Remember Pandeguin? :) I'm glad they are at least rolling them out separately. https://t.co/OLB8JJKjvC
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) September 18, 2022
Forum discussion at Twitter.
