Image: Felix Mittermeier on Pixabay
Google announced yesterday that it was rolling out the August 2024 core update. It also released updated guidance on what to do if your site is impacted by an update.
Google said the update continues work to improve the quality of search results, to surface more content made for people rather than search engines.
“This update is designed to continue our work to improve the quality of our search results by showing more content that people find genuinely useful and less content that feels like it was made just to perform well on Search.”
It also takes into account feedback it has received over the past few months. Many websites are yet to recover from the impacts of recent core updates and affected publishers will be hoping this update takes account of improvements made in line with Google guidance.
“This latest update takes into account the feedback we've heard from some creators and others over the past few months. As always, we aim to connect people with a range of high quality sites, including small or independent sites that are creating useful, original content, when relevant to users' searches. This is an area we'll continue to address in future updates. This update also aims to better capture improvements that sites may have made, so we can continue to show the best of the web.”
Google rolled out big core updates in September 2023 and March 2024 which impacted large numbers of sites. Both updates focused on improving the quality of search results to weed out spammy content in favour of helpful content. Many sites hit in the helpful content update in September were hoping to see a recovery in March, but failed to do so.
** Update 19 Aug: While there's still a long way to go with this update, there do seem to be some grounds for cautious optimisim, with some sites seeing upward movement after the weekend.
SEO Consultant Glenn Gabe is posting regular updates on X about sites he is tracking:
"Good Morning Google Land! This is the Aug 19th edition of "Core Update Notes". First, I'm now seeing more HCU(X) sites surge. Out of the 380+ sites I'm tracking, 47 have surged since the August core update began rolling out. Note, some have low visibility, but they have spiked with the update. Others have greater visibility and are surging back nicely. Some screenshots below of HCU(X) sites surging."
Here's one example:
It's worth bearing in mind that recovery is a lengthy process and sites are unlikely to recover fully to previously held positions. SEO Lily Ray posted the following salutory advice:
"A little context about site recoveries from past Google core updates:
- Recoveries take a while to kick in. You can see in the examples below: the upward movement lasted about 6-12 weeks. No one is going to miraculously shoot back to where they were in 24 hours.
- It's pretty uncommon to see a full recovery; usually best case scenario is about 1/2 to maybe 2/3 of where you were before.
- The best SEO performance for a site hit heavily by a Google core update usually takes place in the days before the first major core update hits I'm not sure I've ever seen a site get back to that point.
- Recovering doesn't mean you won't get hit by a future update You have to keep doing the work."
Help docs on core updates
Google has also substantially updated its help page on core updates.
It is is now divided into the following sections:
- How core updates work
- Check if there's a traffic drop in Search Console
- Assessing a large drop in position
- Things to keep in mind when making changes
- How long does it take to see an effect in Search results
The guidance now provides more in-depth and detailed advice on the actions you should take if your site is impacted by an update, which should prove helpful for creators and publishers.
