Use update-correlate only after defining the traffic window you want to
examine. It combines the anomaly analysis with official ranking incident dates
and known local changes. Overlap can make an update a reasonable investigation
context. It cannot show that the update caused a gain or loss, even when the
movement is large and no other change has been recorded.
Run the report
With MCP, call seo_list_reports with {"category":"diagnosis"}. Call
seo_describe_report with {"id":"update-correlate"}, then use
seo_run_report, for example
{"id":"update-correlate","params":{"site":"sc-domain:example.com","days":90,"recentDays":7,"paddingDays":2,"refresh":false}}.
The same definition is available through the CLI:
seo reports describe update-correlate --json
seo reports run update-correlate --params '{"site":"sc-domain:example.com","days":90,"recentDays":7,"paddingDays":2,"refresh":false}' --json
The schema currently types window and padding values as general numbers. Pass positive whole-day values and avoid excessive padding that makes overlap almost inevitable.
Interpret the output
Start with classification, but always keep attribution and confidence in
view. The report intentionally returns attribution as not-established and
confidence as none. Inspect the underlying anomalies, exact
overlappingUpdates, and confounders before repeating the summary.
Use evidence for observed movement and date overlap, caveats for window,
padding, freshness, and source limits, and source to identify the official
feed. significant-movement-with-update-overlap means both facts occurred in
the configured window. update-overlap-without-significant-movement is not an
impact result. no-update-overlap does not explain any movement that remains.
Act safely
Test saved deploys, redirects, pruning, blocking, tracking, and content changes
first when they overlap. Use segment-impact or the postmortem workflow to map
affected templates and queries. Preserve winning patterns and investigate
losers with page-level evidence. Never describe temporal overlap as a penalty,
reward, recovery, or confirmed algorithm effect.