Did a Google update hurt your revenue?

When clicks from Google fall in the week an update rolls out, the update is the likely cause. What it cost you is a separate question: the sales that came from those clicks.

Drawn with made-up numbers.

What to check, in this order

  1. 1Find the day clicks fell, in Search Console, and lay it next to the updates Google announced on its Search Status Dashboard, with their start and end dates.
  2. 2See whether impressions fell with the clicks. Fewer impressions means you show up less; the same impressions with fewer clicks means you show up lower, or the results page changed.
  3. 3Look at the pages and the searches that lost the most. A few pages losing most of it says the update judged those pages.
  4. 4Then follow it into sales: new customers in the weeks after, and the revenue of buyers who first came from Google.

Where Sumly shows it

  • Visitors › Search: clicks, impressions, click rate and position from Search Console, with the weeks Google changed its mind marked.
  • Each marked week names the pages and searches that lost or gained the most.
  • Overview: Google clicks, new subscriptions and net revenue week by week for 16 months, with the change week drawn through all three.

What an update does, and does not, tell you

Google changes how it ranks pages all the time and announces the larger changes, core updates among them, with the dates they roll out. A fall that begins inside that window, across many pages, is most likely the update.

It does not tell you what was wrong with the pages. Google's own advice after a core update is to look at the pages that lost and ask whether they are the most helpful answer to the searches they lost.

Mistakes that make it lie

  • Reading Search Console's last two or three days. Google fills them in late; give a week before calling it.
  • Treating position as the whole story. An answer box or an AI overview above you can cut clicks without moving your position.
  • Waiting for revenue to show it. Renewals keep it up; new customers show the loss weeks sooner.

Google update questions

How does Sumly know the week Google changed its mind?

It compares each week of clicks with the four weeks before it, and marks a week that fell to 60% of them or less, or grew to 1.6 times or more, when the week before it was still ordinary. A change has to be at least 50 clicks a week to be marked.

Does Sumly know which update it was?

No. It knows the week and the pages; the update's name and dates are on Google's Search Status Dashboard.

Which numbers come from Google?

Clicks, impressions, click rate and position come from Search Console. New customers and revenue come from your payment providers, and the visits from Sumly's own script.

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