A Google algorithm update dropped your rankings: what to do now

A Google algorithm update is a change in how the search engine orders its results. A few large, named updates arrive each year and small adjustments happen practically daily. For most sites they pass unnoticed, but sometimes rankings drop by tens of per cent overnight.

In this article I go through what algorithm updates are, how to tell whether one hit your site and what to do after a drop. And just as importantly: what not to do.

What Google algorithm updates are

Google develops its search continuously with the aim of showing the most useful answer to every query. Most changes are small, but a few times a year Google releases a broad core update that reassesses the quality and usefulness of sites across the whole index.

The direction in recent years has been consistent: content based on real experience and genuinely useful rises, while mass-produced content made purely for search engines falls. The same quality assessment now also affects which sources end up in Google’s AI answers.

How to tell whether an update hit your site

Do not draw conclusions from a single day’s numbers. Work through this checklist:

• Check the timing. Compare the traffic drop against Google’s announced update dates (the Google Search Status Dashboard lists them). If the drop started the same day a rollout began, a connection is likely.
• Separate organic traffic from the rest. In GA4 look only at Google / organic. If direct traffic fell too, the reason is probably elsewhere, seasonality for example.
• Check in Search Console which pages fell. An even decline across the whole site points to a quality assessment; individual pages falling points to a change in the competitive situation.
• Make sure it is not technical. Indexing errors, a site outage or an accidentally blocked crawler look the same as an algorithm hit but are fixed differently.

What to do when rankings have fallen

1. Do not panic and do not make sudden moves

The worst mistake is starting to delete content or make major structural changes on day one. A core update rollout typically takes a couple of weeks, and rankings move throughout it. Some drops recover by themselves during the rollout.

2. Analyse which pages and searches suffered

Take the ten worst-hit pages from Search Console and look at who rose in your place. The new top tells you what Google now values in that search: deeper content, fresher information, experience-based views or something else.

3. Assess your content honestly

Google publishes its own list of questions for assessing helpful content. Its core comes down to a few points:

• Does the page offer something the other pages in the top do not?
• Does real experience of the subject show in the text, or could anyone have written it without reading up on it?
• Was the content made for the reader or for the search engine?
• Would a visitor leave satisfied, or return to the results to keep looking?

4. Improve, do not delete

Most often the right action is improving the pages that fell: adding the missing answers, updating outdated information, bringing in your own experience and examples. Deleting is the right answer only for content with no job at all: thin, duplicated or entirely obsolete pages.

5. Wait for the next update

A site that fell in a core update often recovers only in the next core update, when Google reassesses quality. The gap between the improvements and the recovery can therefore be months. This is frustrating but normal, which is why the fixes are worth starting immediately rather than when the next update is already on its way.

How to build a site that withstands updates

You cannot protect yourself from algorithm updates with tricks, but you can protect yourself with a principle: build the site Google wants to show. In practice that means four things.

Write from experience. Say how things actually go, what they cost and where they typically go wrong. This cannot be copied, and it is exactly what quality updates reward.

Keep the content current. A site whose newest article is three years old signals an abandoned project to reader and machine alike.

Do not rely on one channel. When organic search sits alongside advertising, an email list and direct traffic, a single update does not topple the business. We cover balancing channels on our service pages.

Watch the data monthly. Once you know your normal level, you spot an anomaly quickly and do not mistake seasonality for an algorithm hit.

Known update types and what they mean

Not all updates are the same, and recognising which one helps you react correctly.

A core update assesses content quality and usefulness broadly. The effect shows across the whole site, and recovery requires genuinely improving the content.

A spam update targets rule-breaking: bought links, hidden text and mass-produced content. If this one hits, the issue is not quality but methods.

Review updates concern product reviews and comparisons. They favour content where real experience of the product shows.

Helpful content assessment is part of the core updates and targets sites whose content was made primarily for search engines.

How to tell an algorithm drop from a manual action

A manual action means a Google reviewer has penalised the site by hand for breaking the rules. The difference matters: a manual action produces a notification in Search Console, and you recover from it by fixing the violation and requesting a review.

An algorithm drop produces no notification and no review can be requested. The only route is improving the site and waiting for the next assessment. So always check the manual actions section in Search Console first: if there is an entry there, you know exactly what you are dealing with.

What to do while you wait

Waiting for recovery can take months, and there is no sense sitting on your hands. Use the time for three things: improve the pages that fell, strengthen the channels that do not depend on Google (email list, direct customer relationships, advertising) and build content for searches you are not yet competing in.

Many sites that have recovered after a core update did exactly this: they did not try to guess the algorithm, they made the content clearly better than it was.

Summary: what to do first

If traffic has just dropped, do these three things in this order. First make sure it is not a technical fault or a manual action, because those are fixed differently and faster. Then compare the timing of the drop against Google’s update list and check in Search Console whether the decline affects the whole site or individual pages.

Finally take the ten worst-hit pages and compare them against the new top. Write down what the competitors have that you are missing, and start improving with the pages that were most valuable before. That list is your order of work for the next few weeks.

Frequently asked questions

What is a Google algorithm update?

It is a change in how Google orders its search results. Broad core updates reassess the quality of sites a few times a year, and their rollout typically takes around two weeks.

How do I know an algorithm update hit my site?

Compare the timing of the organic traffic drop against Google’s announced update dates and check in Search Console whether the decline affects the whole site. Rule out technical faults and seasonality first.

How quickly can you recover from a drop?

Improvements to individual pages can take effect within weeks, but a site that fell in a broad core update often recovers only with the next core update, months later. That is why the fixes are worth starting immediately.

Can you protect against algorithm updates?

Not entirely, but the risk is substantially reduced by useful, experience-based content, sound technical condition and not having the business depend on a single channel.

Should content that dropped be deleted?

Only if it is genuinely thin or obsolete. Improving is usually the better answer: add depth, experience and freshness to the pages that fell.