---
title: "Google update postmortem | SEO Skill"
description: "Review Search Console winners and losers around a confirmed Google update window and keep timing evidence separate from a claim of cause in the final report."
canonical: "https://seoskill.dev/docs/reports/update-postmortem"
language: "en"
---

# Google update postmortem

Compare pages and queries around a confirmed Google ranking update after the window has settled. The postmortem shows who moved and when, then leaves causation open for deeper review.

## Install and run the report

Install the CLI once, then run `seo start` to connect your site and Google data. After setup you can run this report yourself or ask your agent to run it.

Install the SEO CLI globally.

```
npm i -g seo
```

Run setup after installation.

```
seo start
```

Review winners and losers around a confirmed Google update.

```
seo update-postmortem --project example
```

## What you get from this report

Review Search Console winners and losers around a confirmed Google update window and keep timing evidence separate from a claim of cause in the final report.

Best for

Property movement overlaps a confirmed update and needs a careful segment review.

Needs

Official Google ranking update dates

You get

Review Search Console winners and losers around a confirmed Google update window and keep timing evidence separate from a claim of cause in the final report.

Use next

Check traffic changes against Google updates

Every report follows the same rules for missing data and outside estimates.[See how report data works](https://seoskill.dev/docs/reports#how-report-data-works).

## What you need before you run it

The report uses the information below. Optional sources are only used when you ask for them.

### Official Google ranking update dates

Defines the confirmed rollout window used for the analysis.

### Search Console winner and loser evidence

Provides matched movement by page, query, device, country, and repeated template patterns.

### Known site changes and optional page checks

Keeps launches, migrations, change-log entries, and representative live-page evidence visible as confounders.

## Use a different report for these jobs

These jobs need a different report or a manual review.

[

### You only need to check whether unusual traffic dates overlap a confirmed Google ranking update.

Run update correlation. It compares the anomaly window with official rollout dates and returns a timing classification without running the deeper winner, loser, page, and confounder analysis.

Google algorithm update checker

](https://seoskill.dev/docs/reports/update-correlation)

### You need proof that the update caused a specific loss or that one proposed change will recover it.

No automated report can prove either conclusion. Review unaffected comparison groups, intent and result-page changes, site releases, tracking, demand, seasonality, and representative pages. The postmortem can organise the evidence and identify patterns, but timing remains context rather than causation.

Needs more evidence

## Use the report with an agent or in code

The command above is enough for most work. These options let an agent, script or application run the same report with explicit input and structured output.

### CLI

Use the report catalog when an agent, script or CI job needs predictable JSON instead of the normal terminal output. Check the current input first, then run the report with the validated parameters.

Check the current input before the agent or script runs the report.

```
seo reports describe update-postmortem --json
```

Once the input is valid, run the report through the report catalog.

```
seo reports run update-postmortem --params '{"site":"sc-domain:example.com","days":90,"recentDays":7,"limit":10,"includeBrand":false,"knownConfounders":["Site migration on 2026-05-12"],"includeChangeLog":true}' --json
```

### MCP

An MCP agent follows the same two-step flow. It inspects the current schema, fills the required fields and only then runs the report.

Ask the MCP server for the current report input.

```
{
  "id": "update-postmortem"
}
```

Run the report after the agent has checked and filled the input.

```
{
  "id": "update-postmortem",
  "params": {
    "site": "sc-domain:example.com",
    "days": 90,
    "recentDays": 7,
    "limit": 10,
    "includeBrand": false,
    "knownConfounders": [
      "Site migration on 2026-05-12"
    ],
    "includeChangeLog": true
  }
}
```

### TypeScript

Install the package in a Node 22 project when your application needs to run the report directly. The result includes the same evidence, warnings and limits returned through the CLI and MCP server.

Add the SEO package to your project.

```
npm install seo
```

Run the report from your TypeScript application.

```
import { executeReport } from 'seo/mcp'

const result = await executeReport(
  'update-postmortem',
  {
  "site": "sc-domain:example.com",
  "days": 90,
  "recentDays": 7,
  "limit": 10,
  "includeBrand": false,
  "knownConfounders": [
    "Site migration on 2026-05-12"
  ],
  "includeChangeLog": true
},
)

console.log(result)
```

## What to do next

Review the winning and losing pages as separate groups and check the queries behind each movement. Record supported hypotheses, then use focused page or segment reports to test them after the update window.

1.  01Audit representative winner and loser pages.
2.  02Record any deliberate response and measure it over a complete later window.

## Related reports

[

Compare unusual Search Console traffic dates with confirmed Google ranking updates without treating a matching date as proof of what caused the change.

Google algorithm update checker

](https://seoskill.dev/docs/reports/update-correlation)[

Compare Search Console movement by page, query, country or device to find which segment explains a wider gain or loss across the selected dates.

SEO segment impact report

](https://seoskill.dev/docs/reports/segment-impact)[

Compare matched Search Console periods around a recorded SEO change and keep releases, demand shifts and other confounders beside the result.

SEO change measurement

](https://seoskill.dev/docs/reports/measure-change)

## Sources used by this report

These primary sources define the provider data or search controls used by the result.

-   [Google Search Status Dashboard](https://status.search.google.com/products/rGHU1u87FJnkP6W2GwMi/history)
-   [Search Console Search Analytics API guidance](https://developers.google.com/webmaster-tools/v1/how-tos/search_analytics)