Google’s August 2024 Core Update Explained

Yesterday evening (Thursday 15th August 2024), Google announced they had begun rolling out their latest Core algorithm update.

The August 2024 Core Update is the second Core Update of 2024, following the March 2024 Core Update earlier this year.

Like most of the recent updates, Google’s focus is still on helpful content and improving search results.

Keep reading as we go through what Google is focusing on in the August 2024 Core Update, what you need to do to meet best practices, and the signs you should look out for to see if your rankings have been affected.

What’s new in the August 2024 Core Update?

As usual, with any recent Google algorithm update, we don’t know exactly what tweaks and changes Google is making behind the curtain.

What we do know is that in the August 2024 Core Update, Google is continuing to focus on helpful content by giving less authority to content that has only been created to rank well on search engines.

In Google’s announcement on the Search Central Blog, they also mentioned they are working to improve the helpfulness of the results they show to users by making them more relevant to the user’s search intent.

In short, this means Google rewards content written to help readers and provide value and gives less ranking weight to search engine focused content that provides little or no value to the reader.

Most algorithm updates take only a week or two to roll out. However, Google’s March 2024 Core Update took 45 days to complete its rollout, and there was quite a lot of ranking volatility during that period.

So, we’ll have to wait and see how long the August 2024 Core Update takes to finish rolling out and how it will impact search results.

What you need to do to meet best practices

Nothing major seems to have changed in the August 2024 Core Update.

Google continues rewarding useful and valuable content, so now’s the time to double down on that.

Here are a few things you can do to improve the overall helpfulness of your website content:

Follow Google’s helpful content & E-E-A-T guidelines

When the first Helpful Content update was released in August 2022, Google provided detailed guidance on what they consider ‘helpful’ when ranking content.

With each subsequent Helpful Content update, this guidance has been kept up-to-date on Google’s latest best practices, so following this guidance as much as possible will certainly help with the August 2024 Core Update.

A big part of these guidelines is E-E-A-T – which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.

Google uses this to judge whether content has been written from first-hand experience and genuine expertise, particularly for ‘Your Money or Your Life’ (YMYL) topics that can impact people’s financial well-being and physical and mental health.

Google uses these E-E-A-T signals to score how trustworthy your content is and determine whether it should be rewarded and given a higher position in search results. So it’s an important thing to follow, especially if you write YMYL content.

Search Engine Journal has a very insightful guide on E-E-A-T signals.

Review and update existing content

Don’t just focus on creating new content, but also go back through your existing content and update it in line with Google’s latest guidance.

Comb back through your older articles and pages that haven’t been updated for a while and check them. If the information is thin, outdated, or irrelevant, you should update it to make it more relevant and helpful.

If the content is completely irrelevant and no longer needed, it’s best to delete it—just remember to set up a redirect to avoid any potential 404s!

Write with people in mind, not search engines

Google’s systems are pretty dam’ intelligent. They can quickly identify patterns in your writing, like overusing keywords (keyword stuffing), to determine whether your content has been written just to manipulate search rankings.

We know that sometimes getting your content to rank highly isn’t easy, and it’s tempting to try any old tactic to try and get a bit higher up in search results.

But these black-hat SEO tactics and ‘hacks’ will do more harm.

Focus on writing accurate and helpful content on topics your target audience is interested in and wants to learn more about.

That’s what Google wants to see, and that’s what will help you climb the rankings.

What you should monitor as the update rolls out

Each time there’s an algorithm update, there’s a good chance some ranking volatility will come with it, and it’s likely to happen with the August 2024 Core Update.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term ‘ranking volatility’, all it means is that there’s a more unpredictable change in search rankings than usual. Websites affected by ranking volatility might see drops in traffic and visibility, or they could shoot right up to position one.

The important thing to remember is that it will settle down once the update has finished rolling out. Just be patient and try not to make knee-jerk changes, hoping they will fix the problem.

Instead, monitor your data and look for patterns that indicate a change in position.

Here are a few metrics and tools to look at:

Search impressions and engagement rates

Keep an eye on your search impressions and website click-through rates on Google Search Console.

A noticeable drop in these figures could indicate that your rankings have dropped or some pages have been removed from Google’s index.

Organic traffic and new users

Similarly, if your organic traffic figures and the number of new users visiting your website drop, it might be a sign of losing positions or pages being deindexed. So keep an eye on your Google Analytics reports.

Tools that track keyword performance

If you’re using SEO monitoring tools like Semrush, keep an eye on your keyword tracking.

These tools can show you all of your tracked keywords and how many positions you have gained or lost for specific search terms.

Remember that third-party tools aren’t always 100% accurate. So don’t make knee-jerk changes before the update has finished rolling out, and always check multiple data sources.

Get support from our SEO specialists

If you’re noticing big drops in website traffic and keyword rankings due to the August 2024 Core Update, our SEO specialists can help you monitor your performance, review your optimisations, and help you improve your rankings.

To speak to a specialist today, visit our contact page or call us on 01329 565001. We’ll be more than happy to help.