Google Core Updates Uses Data Prior To Its Launch But Data May Update After

Google’s John Mueller was asked what are the timeframes for the data used when calculating quality metrics for the Google broad core updates. John said that there is a lot of “work that’s done well in advance” and “usually with data collected until then,” then being just before it rolls out.

But John added “and afterwards the data updates over time normally,” so I guess some data may be updated afterwards.

In short, Google spends a lot of time processing quality metrics and other core update related metrics prior to when Google begins rolling out the core update. Then when it rolls out, it uses those metrics for ranking purposes. That is why it is so hard to recover from a Google core update between core updates – although there is some leeway possible there.

Here is John’s tweet on this:

There’s a lot of work that’s done well in advance ( https://t.co/ZWVQtoQOes ); when it rolls out, it’s usually with data collected until then, and afterwards the data updates over time normally.

— 🐝 johnmu.xml (personal) 🐝 (@JohnMu) May 30, 2022

As you can see, John wrote “There’s a lot of work that’s done well in advance; when it rolls out, it’s usually with data collected until then, and afterwards the data updates over time normally.”

So if you got hit by a core update, the chances of bouncing back fully before the next core update is unlikely but you may see some incremental increases between if data shifts in your favor.

I know, this is not new and this is also how the old Google Panda and Google Penguin updates worked, prior to them being baked more into the overall algorithms and becoming more real time.

Forum discussion at Twitter.