When a website’s Google search traffic drops sharply, it’s tempting to wait for it to come back. In Diib’s data, most of the time it doesn’t, at least not within six weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We looked at five 2026 Google updates with enough time since to judge recovery: February 5, March 24 (the overlapping spam and core updates), May 21, June 24 and August 18. For each one, we compared a site’s visits from unpaid Google search in the 14 days before the update started with the 14 days after it started, and again with days 29 to 42.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We included sites with connected Google Analytics, complete daily data and at least 150 search visits in the two weeks before. A site counted as a drop if its search visits fell 30% or more while its direct visits (people typing the address or using a bookmark) held within 30% of normal. That filters out tracking problems and outages that hit all traffic. Across the five updates, 7,092 drops from 6,566 websites qualified, out of about 35,000 sites checked per update.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The typical site in this group had 62% of its usual search visits in the two weeks after the update, and 61% six weeks later. On average, there was no rebound.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSix weeks after the update<\/th> Share of sites that dropped<\/th><\/tr><\/thead> Still down 25% or more<\/td> 68%<\/td><\/tr> Still down 50% or more<\/td> 34%<\/td><\/tr> Partly recovered (down 10\u201325%)<\/td> 14%<\/td><\/tr> Back within 10% of normal<\/td> 18%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n What this data can’t tell you<\/h2>\n\n\n\n