The May 2022 core update ran from 25 May to 9 June 2022, taking 15 days. It was the only core update of the first three quarters of 2022 and it arrived after a 258-day gap, the longest between two core updates in the recent record. Sites demoted in September 2021 waited more than eight months for this reassessment.
The longest wait on record
| Interval | Days | Measurement (context) |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 2021 core to May 2022 core | 258 | Longest recent gap |
| Jun 2025 core to Dec 2025 core | 147 | Second longest |
| Nov 2024 core to Dec 2024 core | 7 | Shortest on record |
Any recovery plan built around an expected reassessment date has to reckon with a range that runs from seven days to over eight months. The average is 82 days and it describes almost none of the actual intervals, which is why the core update countdown publishes the full spread rather than a single figure.
What ran in the meantime
Not nothing, which is the point often missed. Between November 2021 and May 2022 Google shipped the December 2021 product reviews update, the February 2022 page experience update for desktop, and the March 2022 product reviews update.
None of those reassess a core demotion. A review site could be demoted and recovered by the reviews system twice in that window while its core-level standing sat untouched. Different systems, different standards, separate clocks.
The lesson for a long wait
- Other updates running is not your reassessment. Only a core update re-scores a core demotion.
- Ship early rather than perfectly. When the gap can be eight months, work that is live and crawled before the rollout starts is worth more than work that is better but late.
- Freeze once it is in. Continuous editing through a long wait removes any ability to attribute the result afterwards.
Waiting months with nothing happening?
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Traffic dropped around May 25, 2022?
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