Google’s November core update lands in the Black Friday run-up

If your website’s Google traffic jumps around over the next fortnight, this is probably why. Google has started a core update, and it could run until 25 November, two days before Black Friday.

The November 2026 core update began at 10:06am US Pacific time on 10 November. That was 2:06am on 11 November in Perth, and 5:06am in Sydney. Google says it applies globally and to all languages, so Australian sites are included. The rollout may take up to two weeks.

What a core update actually does

Several times a year, Google makes broad changes to how it ranks pages. It calls these core updates. They don’t target particular sites. Instead, Google updates its ranking systems as a whole, so some pages rise and others fall.

Google compares it to a list of your 20 favourite restaurants. A few years on, new places have opened and you’ve reassessed some old favourites. Restaurants that drop off your list aren’t necessarily bad; others just earned the spot.

This is Google’s third core update of 2026, after March and May. Both of those took about 12 days to finish, according to Google’s status dashboard.

Why the timing stings

Black Friday falls on 27 November this year. If this update takes its full two weeks, it would finish on 24 November US time, which is 25 November in Perth.

So rankings may shift while you’re running a sale. You won’t know what it did to your site straight away. Google’s advice is to wait until the rollout finishes, plus a week, before judging the effect.

What Google says to do, and when

The official guidance on core updates starts with reassurance. Most sites don’t need to worry, and many won’t notice anything.

If your traffic does drop, Google suggests a set order:

1. Wait for the finish. Check the Search Status Dashboard for the update’s end date.
2. Then wait a week. Google recommends at least a full week after the rollout completes before you analyse anything. Then compare that week with the week before the update began.
3. Check how far you fell. A slide from position 2 to 4 needs no drastic action, and Google says not to rework content that’s already performing well. A fall from position 4 to 29 deserves a closer look.
4. Look at search types separately. A drop can be in Web Search, Images, Video or the News tab.

For a sustained, large drop across your whole site, Google points to its self-assessment questions on helpful, people-first content. It warns against “quick fix” changes made because someone said an element was bad for SEO. Deleting content is a last resort.

Recovery can take months

Improvements can be slow to show. Some take effect within days. Others can take months, and sometimes not until the next core update. Google also makes smaller, unannounced core updates, so a recovery doesn’t always need a big one.

If you’re still sorting out the effects of September’s spam update, we covered it in our story on the spam update.

Checklist

• Note the start date. Mark 10 November 2026 (US time; 11 November in Perth) in your traffic reports so you can line up any change with the core update.
• Don’t rush changes. Google says to wait until the rollout ends, plus a week, before analysing, and small ranking drops don’t need drastic action.
• Watch for the end date. Check the update’s page on Google’s Search Status Dashboard (status.search.google.com) and note when it’s marked complete.
• Compare traffic a week after it finishes. In Search Console, compare a full week after the rollout ends with the week before 10 November.
• Sort drops by size. Look at your top pages and searches, and only dig deeper where a page fell a long way, such as from position 4 to 29.