August 2023: a second core update and why holding your nerve paid off
Covers August 2023. Part of our search timeline: a month-by-month look at the changes that shaped SEO, AI search, paid ads and social media, written in November 2026 for local businesses with the benefit of hindsight.
Quick answer: On 22 August 2023 Google began rolling out its August core update, the second core update that year. Sites that had dropped in earlier updates waited to see if they would recover, and Google reminded everyone that improvements can take months to show, often not until the following core update.
If you run a trade business and your website suddenly slips down Google, the temptation is to change everything at once. The August 2023 update was a good reminder that this usually makes things harder, not easier, to fix.
What Google released in August 2023
The rollout took roughly two weeks to finish. Alongside it, Google updated its advice on core updates. It said a site can see some recovery between updates, but larger shifts tend to appear only once another core update has run.
What it meant for local trades and service firms
For a roofer covering three towns or an electrician working across a county, the message was simple: chasing every daily movement in rankings eats time and rarely helps. Businesses that kept making steady improvements to their content and the technical health of their site generally did better than those making panicked edits after each wobble.
How to handle core updates now
- Watch performance across groups of pages and topics, such as all your service pages or all your area pages, rather than obsessing over single keywords.
- Keep a simple log of every change you make to the site and when, so you can link changes to results months later.
- Put your effort into the pages that actually bring in calls, quote requests and bookings before anything else.
Frequently asked questions
How quickly can a site recover after a core update?
Frequently not until the next core update comes along, which may be several months away. Google needs time to reassess the improvements you have made.
Should I delete pages if I lose rankings in a core update?
Only once you have reviewed them carefully. In most cases improving or combining pages works better than removing lots of them in one go.
Sources and further reading
Want help with this? Our local SEO service keeps a steady, measured approach through every Google update. Get in touch.
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