Google Update Recovery · NZ, Australia, US, UK & CA
Traffic dropped after a Google update? Start with a diagnosis.
Rankings move after Google updates, and a drop can feel personal. Before you change anything, find out what actually changed. The wrong fix can cost you more than the update did, and nobody outside Google can promise your traffic comes back.
Latest Google update
September 2026 spam update
A spam update that applies globally and to all languages. Google said the rollout may take up to two weeks.
See it in the update tracker →Updates are listed with sources in the Google and AI search update tracker.
Before you touch anything
Three things Google itself says to do first.
This is advice from Google's own documentation, not mine. Most panic changes skip all three.
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Wait for the rollout to finish
Core updates can take weeks to roll out. Google recommends waiting at least a full week after one completes before analysing your site in Search Console. Check the rollout is finished in the tracker or on Google’s Search Status Dashboard.
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Compare like with like
Google suggests comparing the week after the update with a week before it started rolling out. Look at clicks and impressions, and rule out seasonality, tracking errors and technical problems before you blame the update.
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Skip the drastic changes
For a small drop in position, Google says there’s no need to take drastic action. It also says there’s no guarantee that changes you make will have a noticeable impact. Make changes that are sustainable and make sense for your users.
In plain English
What Google updates actually are.
Google changes its systems all the time. These are the kinds of change worth knowing about.
Core updates
Broad changes to Google’s ranking systems, made several times a year. Google says they “don’t target specific sites or individual web pages”. A drop doesn’t mean your site is bad, and Google notes there might not be anything fundamentally wrong with your content.
Spam updates
Improvements to Google’s automated spam detection. If one affects you, Google’s advice is to review its spam policies and make changes so your site complies, and it says any improvement depends on its systems learning over a period of months.
Discover updates
Changes to how articles are surfaced in Google Discover. The February 2026 Discover update went to English-language users in the US first. It only matters if Discover sends you traffic.
Smaller and unannounced changes
Google says smaller core updates happen between the announced ones. Tracking tools also report volatility that Google never confirms. We list those in the tracker as unconfirmed, with sources, and never treat them as official.
Have I been hit?
A six-step check, in order.
Most traffic drops aren’t what they first look like. Work through these before you decide anything.
- 01
Confirm the drop is real
In Search Console, check whether both impressions and clicks fell. If impressions held but clicks dropped, the problem may be your titles and snippets. Check the Data anomalies page for logging problems, and compare against your analytics.
- 02
Line it up with the update dates
Check the tracker for what rolled out and when. Make sure the rollout has finished, wait a full week, then compare the week after with the week before the update started.
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Rule out seasonality
Use Search Console’s 16-month view to see if the dip repeats every year. Check your main queries in Google Trends to see whether demand fell across the whole market, not just for you.
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Rule out tracking and technical problems
Look for site-wide problems such as downtime, indexing or crawl issues in the Page indexing and Crawl stats reports. If only a group of pages dropped, inspect a few with the URL Inspection tool.
- 05
Check manual actions and security
Open the Manual actions and Security issues reports. A manual action is a different thing from an algorithm update, and Google notifies you about it in Search Console.
- 06
Find where it dropped
Break the drop down by page, query, country, device and search type. A fall across many pages starting on the update dates often points to an algorithmic change. A fall on a few pages usually points somewhere more specific.
Source for the checks above: Google’s own guide, “Debugging drops in Google Search traffic”. If your clicks fell but your impressions didn’t, AI answers may be part of it. See AI search visibility.
What to do next
What actually helps, and what doesn’t.
Google gives no quick fix for a core update drop. These are the changes that make sense, and the ones that waste time or make things worse.
What helps
- Unique, genuinely useful content. Google’s advice is to focus on unique, non-commodity content that visitors find helpful and satisfying.
- An honest look at the whole site. For a large drop, Google says to self-assess your whole website overall, not just individual pages.
- Technical health. Pages Google can crawl, index and show, that load quickly and are easy to use.
- Clear internal links. Google says every page you care about should have a link from at least one other page, with descriptive anchor text.
- Patience. Google says it could take several months for its systems to learn and confirm improvements, and that without an effect after a few months, you may be waiting for the next core update.
What doesn’t
- Panic changes mid-rollout. Google says to wait until it’s finished, and warns against quick-fix changes.
- Deleting or rewriting everything at once. If you haven’t worked out what changed, you can remove the pages that were working.
- Disavowing everything. Google calls its disavow tool an advanced feature, says most sites won’t need it and warns that used incorrectly it can harm your performance.
- Anything that breaks Google’s spam policies. That risks a spam update hit, not a recovery.
- Expecting a recovery date. Nobody outside Google can give you one.
The offer
What does the Traffic Drop Audit cost?
the size of your site
It’s priced the same way as our full SEO audit: the price above covers up to 10 pages, and larger sites are priced by page count. No retainer. I diagnose what changed and tell you plainly what’s worth fixing. It isn’t a promise of recovery. If the answer is seasonality, a tracking fault or something that was already broken, I’ll say so, and you won’t need a bigger project. Turnaround: 3 to 5 working days once I have access to your data.
What’s in it
A diagnosis you can act on.
Not a 90-page report. A clear answer to what happened, and a short, prioritised list of what to do about it.
What I check
- That the drop is real: clicks, impressions and your analytics side by side.
- The dates, matched against confirmed updates and the unconfirmed ones.
- Seasonality and market demand, using the long-range view and Google Trends.
- Tracking, indexing, crawling, security and manual actions.
- Which pages, queries, countries and devices lost traffic, and which didn’t.
- Content quality across the whole site against Google’s own helpful content guidance.
- Internal linking and technical health on the pages that matter most.
What you get
- A plain-English summary: what changed, what didn’t, and my confidence in each.
- A prioritised action list, with what to fix first and what to leave alone.
- The evidence behind each finding, so you can check it.
- A call to talk it through and answer questions.
Fixing the problems is separate, and optional. You can do it yourself, or ask me to help with SEO.
Straight talk
I’ll tell you what happened, and what I can’t promise.
I’m not going to tell you your traffic will come back, or when. Nobody outside Google can. What I can do is find out what changed, separate it from seasonality and tracking noise, and give you a short list of what’s actually worth fixing.
I keep a public update tracker with a source link for every entry, so you can check the dates yourself. No bullshit, just a clear diagnosis.
Keep reading
More on traffic, updates and audits.
What is a Google core update?
A core update is a broad change to Google’s search systems. Google says it makes significant, broad changes several times a year, and that smaller core updates also happen between the announced ones. You can see the confirmed ones in our update tracker.
Is a core update a penalty?
Not in the sense of being aimed at your site. Google describes core updates as broad changes that don’t target specific sites or individual web pages. A manual action is different: it’s applied to a specific site, and Google notifies the site owner in Search Console.
How long should I wait before analysing my traffic?
Google recommends waiting at least a full week after a core update completes before analysing your site in Search Console. Then compare that week with the week before the update started rolling out. Analysing mid-rollout mixes data from before and after the change.
How do I tell an update from seasonality or a tracking error?
Check the 16-month view in Search Console to see if the dip repeats every year, check your queries in Google Trends, and check the Data anomalies page for logging problems. Then line the drop up with confirmed update dates. If it doesn’t line up, the update probably isn’t the cause.
Will my traffic recover?
I can’t promise it will, and nobody outside Google can say when. Google says it could take several months for its systems to learn and confirm long-term improvements, and that if you see no effect after a few months, you may be waiting for the next core update. What I can do is find the real problems and help you fix them.
Should I disavow links after a drop?
Usually not. Google says its disavow tool is an advanced feature, that most sites won’t need it, and that used incorrectly it can potentially harm your performance in search. It’s meant for sites with a manual action for unnatural links, or many spammy links likely to cause one.
What does the Traffic Drop Audit include, and what does it cost?
It’s a fixed-price diagnosis: I check that the drop is real, match it to update dates, rule out seasonality, tracking and technical problems, review which pages and queries lost traffic, and look at content quality and internal linking. You get a plain-English summary, a prioritised action list, the evidence and a call. See the price above.
Do you work with sites outside New Zealand?
Yes. We work with businesses across New Zealand, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, and price in NZD, AUD, USD, GBP and CAD.
Let’s find out what actually changed.
Get the Traffic Drop Audit for a clear diagnosis, or start with a free SEO audit if you’re not sure yet. No bullshit, no pressure, no promises about recovery.