Google’s August Core Update: Will it Impact Your Website?

If there’s one thing that SEO professionals everywhere would agree on, it’s that 2024 has been a tumultuous year for Google Search.

It’s no shock reveal to state that the realm of search is ever evolving, a constant motion of developments, new technologies and updates, that sees today’s hot topic rapidly become yesterday’s news. But even by those standards, 2024 has been a whirlwind.

Afterall, we’re only at the three quarter mark and already we’ve had –

• The gradual introduction of AI Overviews
• The end of infinite scroll
• Starting the depreciation of 3rd party cookies
• Officially mandating Consent Mode v2
• March spam update
• March core update
• Site reputation abuse update
• Delaying the depreciation of 3rd party cookies
• June spam update
• Deepfake ranking system update
• August core update

And it’d be foolish to think it’s going to slow down anytime soon.

For those within digital marketing, this year has been a seemingly relentless series of important roll outs by Google, requiring us experts to preempt and react to changes at a moments notice, quite literally keeping the entire industry on its toes.

So when Google announced the implementation of its latest core update in August, we SEOs took a deep breath, and waited to see what the search oracle had in store for us this time.        

The August 2024 Core Update Explained

Starting the roll out on August 15th, the August Core Update was completed on 3rd September, taking a total of 19 days and causing significant changes in both ranking, and overall search results.

Following feedback from the September 2023 Helpful Content Update as well as the March 2024 Core Update, the August iteration is designed to help sites that were negatively impacted.

Google says: “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.” 

In essence, the update further solidifies helpful content as a fundamental principle to the Google algorithm, preferring content that is high quality and valuable to users over content solely designed to rank well on search engines.

What if Performance Drops After the Update?

The August update further aims to support sites that are struggling by providing essential guidance for those who see a dip in performance following core updates. These guidelines lay out valuable tips on how your site can be assessed and improved. 

It is also worth noting that a drop in performance doesn’t always mean that a page is doing something wrong, if you are producing helpful, people-first content then continue to do so, while your rankings may fluctuate, the way Search itself is changing and with that performance data is sure to be affected. 

The time for concern is when a large drop in position occurs that directly correlates with a core update. If you are seeing a continuous downward pattern in performance for a site as a whole, you will need to take action, starting with a self assessment, to improve your site content.

The guidance from Google themselves states: 

“Take a close look at your site as a whole, and try to be objective. You might also ask others you trust (that are unaffiliated with your site) to do an assessment using the questions.”

“Evaluate the pages that were most impacted. Look closely at these to understand how these pages may perform against the self-assessment questions. For example, there may be other pages on the web that are doing a better job of helping the searcher.”

What are the Implications for the Future Following August’s Update?

Potentially, this update could be very good news for sites most impacted by the implementation of the Helpful Content Update, in fact some sites are already seeing a positive up turn in traffic and performance, although as of yet this percentage remains small.

A recent poll by Barry Schwartz, for those negatively affected by the previous core updates found that many claimed to of seen no change, the poll states –

• 44% said My Rankings/Traffic Are Down (total votes 1,583)
• 27% said My Rankings/Traffic Are Up (total votes 993)
• 29% said No Change (total votes 1,038)

As we can see, although it appears that the August Core Update has not yet improved results for everyone hit by last September’s update, it will take time for Google’s systems to process improvements that could have been made.

Need Help? Contact Our SEO Experts

If you are struggling with the web performance for your business site following Google’s recent updates, speak to our team of experts today. We are a dedicated B2B digital marketing agency with extensive experience in improving website performance, identifying problem areas, developing a tailored SEO strategy to ensure that your site remains competitive in the ever-evolving search landscape. 

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