Google Names The 3/12 Update The "March 2019 Core Update"

Mar 15, 2019 • 7:11 am | comments

(14) by Barry Schwartz | Filed Under Google Search Engine Optimization

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Google March 2019 Core Update

Google didn't like that the SEO community was going with the Florida 2 name for the March 12th Google update, so they decided to tweet out that they are going to be calling it the "March 2019 Core Update." Can they do that?

Google's Search Liaison account posted on Twitter:

We understand it can be useful to some for updates to have names. Our name for this update is "March 2019 Core Update." We think this helps avoid confusion; it tells you the type of update it was and when it happened.
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) March 15, 2019

Google said they get it why it is useful to name some updates and they said "our name for this update is March 2019 Core Update." Why did they name it this? They said they "think this helps avoid confusion; it tells you the type of update it was and when it happened."

Can they renamed updates given by the SEO community? Well, they did it with the Panda update - we originally called it the Farmer update and they renamed it to Panda.

The Panda update targeted content farms, so early on the community named it the farmer update. Google then changed the name to the Panda update.

If you ask anyone if they heard of the Farmer update - they'd most likely say no. But I'd be surprised if any SEO didn't hear of the Panda update.

Here is more from Danny on the naming:

So ... we've not typically given the core updates a name, because we want to have people focus on what they're about -- *core* updates, as opposed to say the Speed Update that we did name and was about site speed. Our preference is any name continue to use "Core" in it...
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) March 14, 2019

There's a strong preference that the updates be "Core" plus a date so that everyone can easily know what it was about. Of course, "Core Update March 2019 doesn't exactly roll off the tongue." But that's what it was, and there's no confusing with other things....
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) March 14, 2019

If "March 2019 Core Update" isn't tongue-tripping enough, maybe Core Update 19/3 (Year/Month) would work. But I think that numbering sequence might also be confusing. Anyway, just curious if there are better Core+Date naming ideas people would have. Names shouldn't be confusing.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) March 14, 2019

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. We've given it the name of "March 2019 Core Update." https://t.co/vBiClniqEF
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) March 15, 2019

Forum discussion at Twitter.

Here are all our current stories as of March 27th on the Google core update from March: