Google released only nine confirmed search ranking algorithm updates this year. Don’t worry, there were a lot more unconfirmed Google search ranking updates this year that we covered and it was a very volatile year, in general.

I made a quick graphic documenting those updates in a timeline fashion over 2023 (I am sure many will steal it and not credit it but whatever):

As you can see, there was almost a 4 month gap in the middle of the year, of no confirmed Google algorithm updates.

So the typical question is why did Google wait to push so many of these updates to the holiday shopping season? Well, Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, said on X, “We do updates throughout the year, and we release them when ready. This explains more.”

He then linked to an article that says, “Aren’t there supposed to be no updates during the holiday shopping season? We do try to avoid having updates during the late-November to mid-December period when possible.
But it’s not always possible. If we have updates that can improve Search, that have been developed over the course of several months, we release them when they’re ready.”

You can read my Google algorithm updates 2023 in review article at 8 am ET on Search Engine Land to dig into these updates more.

Forum discussion at X.