August 2023 Core Google Algorithm Update Analysis - Detailed

Detailed Acquisition by Ahrefs

LAST UPDATED
August 23, 2023

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Google’s August 2023 Core Update

Today Google announced the August core update has started rolling out. It’s going to take a week or two for us to update our stats below, but please know that we’re on it.

In the mean time you can see the original post referencing updates that were made in April of this year.

Recently, the April 2023 reviews update finished rolling out. At Detailed we track 191 independent affiliate sites to track their rankings and how they’re affected by Google updates.

We Track the Rankings of 188 Specifically-Chosen Websites During Each Google Update

We picked these independent affiliate sites by looking at the top websites ranking across 10,000 keyphrases.

All of these websites are independent, meaning they’re not huge news organisations and they’re not part of the Digital Goliaths. If you don’t recognise those names, then you’ll definitely recognise the sites they’re behind.

Our most recent check took us from 165 domains up to 188 domains (as of Friday, May 12th) to see how they’re affected by Google algorithm updates.

188 Sites We Track Affected by the April 2023 Reviews Update (April 2023 vs May 2023)

Comparing May 2023 search traffic with April 2023.

For the table below we are looking at traffic estimates, thanks to Semrush, for 188 websites looking at their traffic in May of 2023 compared to April 2023.

While most of the sites we track lost traffic during this update – at least in the last 30 days – only one saw traffic decrease by more than 20% month-over-month.

The Same 188 Sites And How They’re Performing Year-to-Date (January 2023 vs May 2023)

Comparing May 2023 search traffic with January 2023.

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Analysing Who Thrived Month over Month and Year over Year

The reason we’re so focused on the winners of algorithm updates is to learn from their success.

First of all, do you have any messages in Google Search Console?
Setting up Google Search Console for your website is essential to check for penalties against your site.

Do ‘new elements’ appear in search results for your target terms?
It may be that Google introduced new elements in search results that have affected your rankings.

Things to consider include whether you've made major changes to your website or if your site is the best result for users.

Please note that this article is a work in progress, and we’re constantly updating our advice.