Google August 2024 Core Update: Key Changes and SEO Implications

Finally, the new core update has arrived at every content marketer’s workstation. On August 15th, Google August 2024 Core Update was announced on X, which took no time to grab the attention of digital marketers, especially the SEO experts.

However, the update was purely a result of the feedback, Google was getting from its ‘Google Core Update September 2023’, which suggested how many small and independent publishers were getting affected and losing their search engine rankings.

Let’s explore more and understand what is the update and what changes it will bring to our SEO strategies.

What is the August 2024 Core Update?

Posted by Google’s Search Advocate John Muller on Thursday morning,

“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.

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.”

The statement clearly depicts that the new Google 2024 core update has been crafted keeping in mind these pointers:

• With a clear aim and main focus on showing users that is genuinely useful and created with the intent to provide accurate and quality information.
• To hold back the authenticity of valuable content and resolve the issues faced by content creators and other stakeholders.
• To lay an even stronger foundation for its commitment, i.e. to show more content that people find genuinely useful and less content that was just made just to perform well on Search.
• This Google Core Update also focuses on reflecting the positive changes made by the website to improve the user search experience.
• The increased importance of E-E-A-T, which means Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness
• Last but not least, creators have to ensure that they provide a good experience to users. This will be indicated through several factors like page load time, mobile usability, the comfort of navigating your site to ensure a positive user experience, and much more.

However, no matter who are you, an independent creator or a website already ranking well and backed up by a team of experts, you don’t need to panic as updated by the Google Search Status Dashboard itself that this core update may take up to one month to roll out properly.

The update will be implemented gradually as it’s taking time for the changes to bear across Google’s vast index.

Key Changes and SEO Implications

Now, after years of digital marketing and SEO settling well in the market, it is an obvious fact that how with every Google Core Update, there is a change in SEO implications and other factors. This is because strong reliance of Google Algorithm and search ranking towards each other.

Let’s understand what are the key changes and SEO implications for the Google August 2024 Core Update.

  1. Enhanced Recovery Opportunities

This update by Google brings in a great opportunity to recover all the losses, creators faced due to previous core updates. This indicates that Google is now finally paying attention to the improvements made by the website over time.

  2. Monitor Ranking Changes

SEO Enthusiasts, gear up! As the recent Google Core Update is all set to roll out super soon, it is now vital to keep an eye on SERP ranking fluctuations. However, websites that were previously impacted negatively might recover now. Conversely, sites that continue to focus on ranking manipulation may see reduced visibility.

  3. Adjust SEO Strategies

It’s the perfect time to make necessary adjustments to your SEO strategy as It is crucial to possibly mould your SEO strategies according to the shift made by Google towards content quality. This might involve revisiting and improving existing content, ensuring it aligns with user intent and delivers a high level of value.

  4. Long-Term Perspective

Recovery from core updates and long-planned SEO success definitely requires persistent and quality efforts in content creation and search engine optimization. Focusing on delivering consistent value to users will be a vital key to the treasure of core updates and maintaining strong search rankings.

In short, Google August 2024 Core Update is all about shifting the attention to valuable content rather than the one made only to get higher rankings. Hence, SEO strategies should be moulded likewise and focus should be on increasing user experience.

Google Core Update Guidance

1. New Sections Added

Out of all the changes that took place, significant changes have taken place after having two sections added. The two sections are:

• Check if there’s a traffic drop in Search Console

This section serves as a comprehensive guide to using a search console to determine if a core update has affected a website. The whole process starts with ensuring the completion of the core update, comparing search performance and analyzing different search types.

• Assessing a large drop in position

This section is meticulously crafted for the creators who have experienced a downfall in ranking due to previous core updates. It recommends comprehensively evaluating the site’s content against quality guidelines by Google, focusing on the pages most impacted by the recent update.

2. Additional Changes

The update has also established another section named, ‘Things to keep in mind when making changes’ which informs website owners to prioritise user-centric improvements rather than temporary fixes.

It also suggests that content deletion can indicate that the content was made solely to rank and gain traction without providing genuine and valuable content.

Lastly, the document ends with a closing paragraph stating that rankings can be changed even if the website has not updated anything, due to newly uploaded content.

3. Removed Content

Apart from having new sections added to the website, there are a few sections that are completely removed or replaced with some other content.

A section named “Haven’t violated our spam policies” that used to tell about pages that have been impacted by core updates and compare core updates to refreshing a movie list has been removed lately.

The “Assessing your content” section has been replaced by “Assessing a large drop in position”.

4. Shift in Focus

Last but not least, there is an evident change in tonality as well as the focus of the Google Core Update Guidance. While the previous version of the core updates focused on the nature and significance of core updates, the update versions serve practical tips.

What to do if you are hit?

If you too have been negatively impacted by the previous core updates, then Google has pieces of advice for you. However, they are not new but can help you in your journey of creating value for content.

• There are no specific actions prescribed to take to recover. However, it is said that negative rankings do not mean that your web includes anything wrong.
• Google also advised to wait for upcoming core updates that will bring better and faster chances of recovery.
• Finally and above all, Google has released some questions to consider if you think your site has been hit by a Google Core Update 2024. A few of these questions are mentioned below:

  Questions to Ask While Evaluating Your Content

1. Does the content serve value and well-researched information?
2. Does the content provide comprehensive guidance about the title?
3. Does the headline or title description provide a well-summarised description?
4. Is the content worth sharing with friends or family, as a reader?

  Questions to Ask While Evaluating User-Friendliness

1. Is the content free from grammatical or formatting issues?
2. Does the content include too many advertisements, that can distract the users?
3. Does the content can be read on mobile easily?
4. Does the website, the content is published on, have slow page-load time?

Conclusion

Overall, Google’s August 2024 Core Update even being announced recently has become a topic of discussion in the digital marketing workspace. The update has purely focused on improving the search experience by prioritising the content that has been crafted with value, originality and dedicated research. Rather than promoting the content manipulated to rank higher on SERP.

With this change, the significance of wise use of SEO has increased, due to which various creators have been scared of getting hit by this new Google core update. But what if we tell, you there is no need to feel so, as we are a home of SEO experts providing excellent Google SEO services, keeping all our attention to recent Google Core Updates?

At W3era, we provide meticulously crafted digital excellence.