A core update, and nothing else changed
A medical practice’s estimated US search visits fell 55% in January 2026 and 98% by March, starting with Google’s December 2025 core update. No broken old URLs, no domain change found. Waits on Google.
Traffic dropped after a Google update? Rule out your site, then grade the odds.
Why did my traffic drop after a Google update?
If your traffic fell inside a Google update’s rollout window and your site didn’t change, the update is the likely cause. Core updates re-rank pages across the web; spam updates demote sites that break Google’s spam policies. Check your site first: in two of four public cases we checked, the date pointed at Google and the site had also changed.
September 2026 spam update, – Every confirmed update since December 2025
How do you know a Google update caused the drop?
| Signal | What it means | How to check it yourself |
|---|---|---|
| The drop starts inside a rollout window | Google re-ranked pages during that update, and yours may be among them. | Find the week your clicks fell in Search Console and compare it with Google’s update calendar. |
| Nothing on your site changed | No relaunch, no new domain, no broken old URLs: the site-side suspects are ruled out. | Open five old URLs and check they still land on working pages. View the source of a key page for “noindex”. |
| Pages that didn’t change fell too | The loss isn’t tied to anything you edited, which points to a ranking change. | In Search Console, compare clicks by page before and after the update window. |
| The loss sits in Discover only | A Discover update changed your feed traffic, not your search rankings. | In Search Console, compare the Discover report with the Search results report. |
| A message in Manual actions | A Google reviewer applied a penalty. That’s different from an update. | Open Search Console’s Manual actions report. |
How we test this suspect
The date. We match the start of your drop to rollout windows on Google’s Search Status Dashboard.
Your site, first. We run every check from the redesign suspect: old URLs, redirects, noindex, robots.txt, rendering. A clean site makes Google the leading suspect. If the site broke too, Google is at most one of two suspects.
Which pages fell (Autopsy). In Search Console we check whether the loss follows the pages that changed on your site, or spreads across pages that didn’t.
Who took the clicks (Autopsy). We check which pages now rank for the queries you lost, and what they have that your pages don’t.
The update type. For a spam update, we check your site against Google’s published spam policies. For a Discover update, we check whether the loss sits in Discover rather than search results.
Manual actions. We check the Manual actions report. A penalty applied by Google’s reviewers shows up there; an update doesn’t.
What else looks like a Google update?
Your own relaunch.
Rule out your own site first. In two of the four public cases we checked, the update date pointed at Google and the site had also changed.
Your redesignAI answers.
If your rankings held but clicks fell, it’s probably not the update.
AI
What has this looked like?
A medical practice
- December 2025 core updateDecember 11–29, 2025
| Month | Estimated visits per month (US search) |
|---|---|
| September 2025 | 62,343 |
| October 2025 | 65,891 |
| November 2025 | 71,202 |
| December 2025 | 82,834 |
| January 2026 | 36,885 |
| February 2026 | 7,262 |
| March 2026 | 1,803 |
| April 2026 | 4,689 |
| May 2026 | 4,683 |
| June 2026 | 6,386 |
| July 2026 | 6,120 |
| August 2026 | 5,432 |
| September 2026 | 4,936 |
| October 2026 | 4,779 |
A core update, then three spam updates
A content site fell 44% in April 2026 as the March 2026 core update finished, then to 58 estimated monthly visits by October, across the June, August and September spam updates. Waits on Google, and only if the site meets Google’s spam policies.
Can traffic come back after a Google update?
Sometimes. A Google-caused loss usually grades as Waits on Google: you fix what’s on your side, and whether traffic returns depends on Google reassessing the site. Some losses grade as Partly recoverable, when the evidence shows specific pages or problems you can improve. If the search results themselves changed, the grade is Structural.
Google’s documentation on core updates says some changes take effect in a few days, others take several months, and if a few months pass with no effect, “that could mean waiting until the next core update.” It also says “there’s no guarantee that changes you make to your website will result in noticeable impact in search results” (Google Search Central, updated December 2025).
So we guarantee what we control: the Autopsy’s verdict within three business days, and a Recovery Program pilot you can stop at day 30.
Start with the Autopsy
For a Google-caused loss, the Autopsy tells you which update, which pages and queries, what the loss is worth a month, and whether it’s worth trying to win back. The fix list is written so your team can start without us.
Price: $1,500 for the first 10, then $2,000. Three business days, or a full refund.
The Recovery Program, when the odds are fair
- $2,500 a month for three months.
- Only when the Autopsy says the odds are fair and the lost value justifies $7,500 of work. If it doesn’t, we’ll tell you, and the Autopsy’s fix list is where your team starts.
Every week
- Prioritised direction: tickets and page briefs for the Google-caused part of the loss, starting with what the loss ledger prices highest.
- A check of every change that ships.
Every month
- A re-verdict: what moved, what didn’t, and whether the odds changed.
- Month one is a paid pilot. In week one we agree with you, from the Autopsy, on the leading indicators that should move first: for example, index coverage of the pages we fixed, or impressions for target query groups. If they haven’t moved by day 30, we stop, and you pay nothing more.
- Google decides rankings and doesn’t promise anything either. We guarantee what we control: the Autopsy’s verdict in three business days, and a pilot you can stop at day 30.
- Three Programs at a time.
- The Autopsy fee counts in full toward the Program if you book within 30 days.
Frequently asked questions
Should we just wait for the next core update?
Sometimes that’s what it takes. The Autopsy tells you what to fix while you wait, and whether waiting is the whole plan.
Is this a Google penalty?
A manual penalty appears in Search Console’s Manual actions report. An update doesn’t. We check the report in every Autopsy.
We were hit by a spam update. Can you help?
If you broke a spam policy by accident, the Autopsy shows where. If the site was built on scaled or spam tactics and you want a workaround, we’re the wrong people.
Why only three Recovery Programs at a time?
It’s slow, detailed work, and we would rather do three properly.