Google Core Update, Spam Update October 2023

Steve Paine

(Author)

Published: 21.10.2023

The Spam Update was the first to be announced, on the 4th October. It was completed on the 20th October 2023

The Core update followed a day later, the 5th October, and was completed on the 19th October.

Our data shows that the bulk of the SERP movements were seen in data from the 12th to the 18th of October. Pins in SISTRIX have been set accordingly.

In comparison with the September Helpful Content update the effects seen were not as big as the Core and Spam updated. The Google Update Radar, shown above, can always be found in our free SEO tools area, along with more information.

Winning domains – Core and Spam Update October 2023

There are less prominent winners to be found than losers, and that could be due to the Spam Upddate’s focus on penalising content. In that case, the ‘winners’ are even distributed as the SERPs fill the holes left by the removals. Some larger examples can be found though, and there’s evidence of directory-level targeting.

Some domains are showing strong directory-level changes.

Top 50 winning domains

Looking at established domains, (VI at start of updates => 1.0) in the absolute risers list we see many of the usual suspects.

Reference sites are often seen moving during core updates, along with social media sites and stock image and lyrics sites. The levels of change here among the big sites don’t represent high percentage changes.

In the list of percentage changes we see domains and business models of different types appearing.

Informational, ecommerce and reference sites are included. Temu.com which keeps surfacing in our search trend data across US, UK and DE, has, once again, gained.

Top 50 Losing domains

Here’s a list of the biggest losing domains over the period of the Spam and Core Update. (Starting Visibility Index => 1.0.)

Among the largest of absolute VI losses are the lyrics websites.

Like dictionaries, they are often seen moving around as they compete for, effectively, the exact same content. A handful of UK large UK retail and news media brands can be seen in the list but the values are not high enough to cause any major concern.

As always, the percentage losses list is where we see the changes that could affect business models. There are few major brands to be found in the list though. Note: RSPB have undertaken a content move.

Again, a few news media brands appear here but among 70 news media domains there’s an equal amount of losses and gains, and no identifiable trend.

Summary

Two concurrent updates have made it almost impossible to determine any underlying trends. The usual suspects appear in the list of largest movers – lyrics and dictionaries, for example.

Established domains haven’t been affected during the period but looking at percentage changes reveals changes that can affect business. We hope the lists of domains above helps you to do your own analysis of content and data.