‍What is digital marketing?

What are the goals of the core updates? With this update, what Google targets is exposing high-quality, relevant content to a better degree and reducing visibility to that which has less value and is more SEO-focused.

Analytics and strategies: Observe Google Search Console changes in traffic and ranking during this post-update period to have a better view of it.

Content strategy: Focus on long-term enhancement of the quality of a website and its ranking in the search engine rather than quick wins by SEO service.

Google rolled out its highly anticipated August 2024 Core Update on Aug. 15. Once complete, this update will rank down low-added-value SEO-focused content and rank up high-quality sites.

According to a tweet from Google Search Central, the aim will be to have more quality results in search—sticking more of what seems really useful to users to the top and fewer of what appears to have been penned only to show in search engines.

Insight on Google's Core Update

This core update is just making more noise regarding the feedback from the webmaster community that Google has been receiving over these months.

"The whole goal of our algorithms, across web search, is to find ways to surface high-quality sites and content for a wide variety of users, including cases when user queries are not clear," explained Google Search Advocate “John Mueller” of Google Switzerland.

Google also says that it will continue to work on this area in upcoming updates.

The process the company continues with every core update, including the one from the past month, is the one set to work so that it can help in accomplishing its mission to fulfill relevant and trustworthy results to searchers. This is all kind of wide-reaching changes and not looked over at targeted websites or reconsidered at individual pages.

Google compared its core updates to a friend who asked for recommendations on where to eat. Maybe in 2019 you put together a list of your 20 favorite restaurants. Now, though, that list is just out of date. A few new restaurants have opened that didn't exist back then. Maybe a few older ones have fallen off, or there's some turnover in ranking. In short, that list needs updating.

How to Analyze Impact on Traffic and Rankings 

With this August Core Update, Google has published an updated help page on the subject, detailing more about what to do in case one has changes in traffic and rankings when an update has rolled out.

For a digital marketing agency, this is particularly crucial. By leveraging the insights from Google Search Console, if you have seen a loss in position or page traffic from your website and want to understand whether it might be core update-related,.

To do this:

Wait for the core update to complete deployment: You can do this in the Search Status dashboard. In fact, Google advises waiting a full week after rollout to analyze your site.

Compare your website performance: The week following the rollout completion, compare your website performance to the week prior to the rollout start to understand what has changed.

Review your top pages and queries: What happened with their ranking prior to and after the core update?

• Has the change been minor in nature? For example, losing two positions from rank 2 to rank 4? Then, do nothing.
• Is this change big? Move from position 4 to position 29? In this case, it is time for a more thorough evaluation.

Consider the research types separately. This means separate comparisons for web search, Google images, video mode, and the News tab.

How to increase traffic and rankings after updating

Experienced a big drop in traffic and rankings? If so, Google offers a self-assessment guide, which will walk creators through how to assess their overall site in terms of delivering content that's reliable, helpful, and people-first.

Tips for Using the Self-Assessment Guide

Planning to use the self-assessment guide? If so, Google offers a few tips to follow:

• Take a holistic view of the pages and try to set aside bias.
• Ask a friend or colleague (who isn't involved with your site) to do the review.
• Check the worst affected pages.

Questions in the Self-Assessment Guide

The guide has more than 35 questions to guide you when evaluating your site, like:

• Does the content provide original information, reporting, research, or analysis?
• Does it give a substantial, complete, or comprehensive description of the subject?
• Does the main heading or page title descriptively summarize the content, and is it helpful?
• Does the content evidence an earn-trust style presentation?
• Is this written or reviewed by an expert or enthusiast who is demonstrably knowledgeable about the topic?
• Is your site having a primary purpose or focus?
• Will the person who reads your content leave with the sense that this has been a satisfactory experience?

Dos and Don'ts of Quality Raters Changing Content

If you're looking to change your content in a bid to improve rankings, here are some easy dos and don'ts from Google:

• Avoid hacks. For instance, do not clear out specific page elements since you have heard that they are injurious to SEO. On the other hand, make changes that make sense for users and which you can support in the long term.
• Do consider how you can make meaningful changes in the content. This may involve rewriting or re-structuring the content so that it is in a format that is easier for the user to read and navigate.
• Don't delete the content. This should be very much the last resort, and only if you believe there is no way to salvage the content.

When you improve, it may take some time to actually see it within results. Some changes could immediately work within a few days, while others might take several months. In some instances, you may not get any impact until Google rolls out its next core update.

Stay on Top of Google’s Big SEO Changes 

Google constantly makes changes to its algorithm and features, something we cover regularly in our State of SEO. The August 2024 Core Update is a reminder that SEO is not a set-it-and-forget-it endeavor but a challenge that requires ongoing refinement. 

Remember, changes in rankings and traffic are an opportunity to improve and excel. Use tools like Google Search Console and the self-assessment guide to align your content more closely with Google’s criteria. You can also check out insights from Google’s algorithm leak to learn what benchmarks Google’s looks for that it doesn't necessarily advertise.