Got hit by a core update — what's the actual recovery sequence?

Got hit by a core update — what's the actual recovery sequence?

Q: Traffic dropped 40% after the update. What do I do first?

A: Short answer: diagnose before you touch anything. Longer answer, week-by-week:

— Week 1: Confirm it's the update (date-match the drop), and export which URLs lost most.
— Week 1: Group losers by topic. Patterns tell you what Google reassessed.
— Week 2: Pick your 10 biggest losers. Read them as a stranger would. Thin? Outdated? Written for keywords, not humans?
— Week 3-4: Rewrite those 10 properly — add firsthand experience, cut fluff, fix the title intent.
— Then wait. Core update recovery usually lands on the NEXT core update, not in days.

Resist mass-editing everything. Surgical beats panic.

Anyone want me to go deeper on this? React 👍