March 2023 core update

A long quiet period before it

The previous core update completed on 26 September 2022. Nothing core ran for four and a half months. For sites demoted in September 2022, that meant a very long wait with no mechanism for reassessment, and this update was the first opportunity.

That gap, 137 days, sits near the top of the historical range alongside the 147 days between June and December 2025. Both are worth remembering whenever someone quotes an average waiting time, because the average conceals exactly this.

What it targeted

A standard broad core update. Google published no accompanying policy change and named no specific focus, which is the norm. Reported movement was moderate and spread across verticals rather than concentrated in one sector.

Two things about early 2023 are worth noting for context rather than as causes. The December 2022 helpful content update had completed on 12 January 2023, so its effects were still settling. And the experience component had been added to E-E-A-T in December 2022, formalising first-hand experience as an explicit quality signal across all content rather than only reviews.

Diagnosing a drop dated March 2023

• This update stands alone. No other confirmed rollout overlapped it, so date matching is reliable, which is rare for this era.
• Check whether the decline actually started in January. The December 2022 helpful content update ran into mid-January and its effects were often mistaken for March damage.
• Your Search Console history may no longer cover it. Search Console retains 16 months, so March 2023 has fallen out of the default range and needs archived data if you kept any.

Source: Google ranking updates list