August 2024 Core Update: How Do the Experts Feel?

SEO Experts Weigh In

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I’ve pulled together initial reactions and the latest thoughts from some of the top SEO experts:

Mark Williams-Cook on LinkedIn:

“The next core update is upon us! #seo”

Lily Ray on LinkedIn:

“The August 2024 Core Update is finally rolling out and aims to help small publishers.

“Google said this update aims to promote useful content from small and independent publishers, after Google listened to feedback it received since the release of the March 2024 core update. “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 on relevant searches. This is an area we’ll continue to address in future updates,” John Mueller added.”

Let’s see how this goes.”

Lily Ray went on to share a hopeful picture for sights affected in previous updates on X:

“Here’s an HCU-impacted site surging +590% where it was two days ago.

It’s still nothing compared to what they lost in the Helpful Content Update, but that’s how core update recoveries work. They take weeks. It’s been 24 hours.”

Glenn Gabe on X:

“Good Morning Google Land! This is the first edition of “Core Update Notes” for the August 2024 core update. And man, are we starting off in an interesting way. First, Google announced a ranking issue last night impacting a “large number of search results”. So, what I present now could change… But I am seeing the first signs of HCU(X) sites recovering. One that was hit heavily by the Sep HCU(X) started surging back from the dead on 8/14, one day before the core update. See the first two screenshots below. I’m also seeing a site focused on gaming surge back a bit rankings-wise. Still early, but I’m seeing the site ranking for a bunch of queries it didn’t rank for after the HCU(X)… Maybe we’ll hear from them today. :)

Beyond the HCU(X), http://housefresh.com seemed to have surged yesterday. See screenshots below. Manually checking the queries does reveal an increase in rankings there. They were impacted heavily by core updates and not the HCU(X), but interesting to see based on their blog posts about the situation. Stay tuned. I think we’re in for a crazy ride with this update.”

Chris Long on X:

“It’s FINALLY here. The August 2024 Core Update is officially rolling out today. Google is looking to reverse the damage its done to independent sites:

– Over the past few months, Google has been getting feedback from smaller, independent publishers about the recent search updates.

– Part of the August 2024 Core Update incorporates this feedback in order to help these sites that “are creating useful, original content

– Google has also updated their page that gives advice on how to respond to their Core updates.

– In this updated guidance that the biggest gains impacted sites often see are after another Core Update has rolled.

Will be interesting to see the results of this and if we see smaller sites start seeing increased visibility in the search engines again.”

Aleyda Solis posted a useful deep dive on X into the change to Google’s core update help page.

What Does the Search Landscape Look Like?

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Ahead of the August 2024 core update rollout, I reported on spikes in SERP volatility. Here’s what the Google ranking trackers look like today: