Google August 2024 Core Update

At the beginning of August, we were already seeing significant shifts in the search results ourselves. This happened just as we were expecting a major update from Google. However, the search engine itself remained silent on the matter—until August 15, when the August 2024 Core Update was announced. The rollout was expected to take a month but was completed on September 3.

Keeping up with Google updates is essential for your website’s search engine optimization. After all, your pages’ rankings don’t just change because you or your competitors make adjustments. Google also fine-tunes its algorithms several times a day. And a few times a year, the search engine rolls out a core update, during which its entire operation is reviewed and fine-tuned. The previous update, the March 2024 Core Update, was the largest in 12 years.

On August 15, Google employee John Mueller posted a relatively vague message online. “Today we launched our August 2024 core update for Google Search. With this update, we’re continuing our work to improve the quality of our search results. We’re doing this by showing more content that people actually find useful and less content that feels like it was created solely to rank well in Search.”

In the months leading up to that, Mueller and other Google employees had been listening closely to small and independent websites that had been hit hard by the Helpful Content Update in September 2023. Some of them made headlines in several major media outlets due to the dramatic drops in their traffic. For example, HouseFresh, a website that reviews air fresheners, published a case study with the telling title“How Google is killing independent sites like ours.” Their story was picked up by outlets including The New Yorker, the BBC, and Knack.

This update once again caused significant shifts in the SERP, the search results page. Many smaller websites initially saw an increase in traffic, followed by a decline. Of course, it takes more than just a few days to assess the full impact of a Core Update.

Google seems to have already prepared itself for new criticism. On its website, it posted updated recommendations for website owners who have been negatively affected by a Core Update. Here are a few tips:

• Check the Google Search Status Dashboard to make sure an update is being rolled out, and keep an eye on when the rollout is complete.
• Wait a week after the rollout, and then compare it to the week before the rollout for a more accurate analysis.
• For minor shifts of just a few positions, it’s best not to take any action.
• If you’re seeing larger drops, check to see if your website is actually offering helpful and reliable content to people. Focus on making long-term improvements for your users.
• Sometimes changes have an impact just a few days later; other times, it takes months—maybe even until the next major update.

Basically, Google continues to recommend focusing on the three pillars of SEO: strong technical SEO, helpful content, and high-quality linkbuilding. Need help with that? Contact Digital Climax, and we’ll help you rank higher in search results. We’ll wrap things up with a thoughtful quote from Google to put everything into perspective: “Web pages that drop in rankings aren’t necessarily ‘bad’; there are just other pages ranking higher.”