On August 22nd, Google released the August 2023 core update. We did not feel much of any volatility until a few days later, on August 25th. Then we had some movement on that Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and then it died down for a couple of days, picking up again a few days ago.

I am seeing new volatility signals with this August 2023 core update starting Wednesday, August 30th, through today, Friday, September 1st. The movement does not seem to be as drastic and impactful as what we saw on August 25th but there is an additional movement over the past few days.

I have to say, overall, this release seemed to be not as heated as past updates in terms of how widespread this was. I was expecting it to hit many more sites but it did not seem to.

SEO Chatter

Here is what I see in terms of SEO chatter over the past few days. These are from WebmasterWorld, BlackHatWorld and comments here:

Traffic has practically doubled in the past 48 hours.

Very interesting.

Mine has halved!

Holy… Traffic and conversion rates are superbly horrible for the past 24 hours.

For one moment I thought my websites all went offline or something.

A most unusual few days for my global site after the update with the first 4 days as follows for page views:

87.5%
85.5%
84%
84.5%
and then yesterday 145% but today down again.

Absolutely dead for all sites, global site was 79.5% yesterday, our hotel venue was 54.2% and so far today after 10+ hours it’s at 3.3% … Yes, three point three percent … More in-depth required!

Noticing some fluctuations today. Past few days have been either +10% or -11%. Not too big. Small changes. However, today I am currently experiencing a -30% to -50% drop.
In comparison, I’m still +20% to +105% over last month. However, looking back to 2022 I am down by -50% to 70%.. So much for recovering.

I see a little improvement and receive better traffic (quality), I don’t rely on mass for the ads, but I feel the targeted audience is better. Less impressions, like -30%, but the CTR doubled as well the inquiries. So for now it’s good.

The last 3 days traffic has been ok und slightly up. But today it is down to 50% again. And needles to say traffic is rubbish, no engagement, no inquiries, no sales from google traffic.

Traffic is once again dead at the start of the day. Exactly like yesterday. But even further down compared to the previous day. It’s like the site is being strangled more and more during the early hours and into the start of the afternoon. With each passing day.
Thankfully the site did pick up during the afternoon yesterday but due to the morning ‘strangulation’ it ended up being -14%. Love G updates!

I experience a very similar trend on a site that competes heavily with both local and national queries in the lead gen market. Slow traffic in the morning hours (6-11am) and picking up significantly from lunchtime to 9PM at night.

Since yesterday, it has been dribbling along comfortably. Once again invisible in Google News and also lost a lot of visibility otherwise. What is new, however, is that Google traffic is only sporadic from around 10pm and the trickle starts again at 9am.

I don’t get it, my site is getting very large traffic bumps every day since this update. Search is up 18-30%. I think in my case it has a lot to do with seasonality and perhaps the fear of recession is waning, but the number of new inquiries is also much higher.

Some useful charts from Glenn Gabe (no, he can’t share the site):

Another Aug core update example. Reviews site surging with this update after dropping heavily with what appears to be the Dec Link Spam Update, then surging with March 2023 broad core update, and now more with the Aug core update. I’m seeing many examples of volatility… pic.twitter.com/mFEUq0H5s8

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) August 31, 2023

More from the Aug core update. Huge drop for this site in the lyrics space after surging during previous updates including both the Sep 2022 core update & the March broad core update. Then a drop during April reviews update, but jumps back w/May volatility. Now tanking big-time pic.twitter.com/brQnt9Ra99

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) August 31, 2023

So as you can see from the comments and charts, sites impacted saw very big changes.

Tracking Tools On August 2023 Core Update

The tools, at least most of them, noticed more volatility around Friday, August 25th and then seemed to calm down after. Here is what they show:

Semrush:

SERPmetrics:

Advanced Web Rankings:

Accuranker:

Mozcast:

Cognitive SEO:

Algoroo:

RankRanger:

SERPstat:

Wincher:

SERPwoo:

I suspect the update will be done rolling out soon.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and BlackHatWorld.