Google’s August 2024 core update began on August 15, 2024, and concluded 19 days later on September 3, 2024. Initially, there were indications of recovery for sites affected by the notorious September 2023 helpful content update, but for most of those sites, the traffic increase was insufficient to be significant.
While the August core update seemed substantial, Google stated that the March 2024 core update was its largest ever.
Ranking Bug: The initial four days of the August core update coincided with a significant search ranking bug, which was resolved afterward. Any changes observed during those first few days should be disregarded, and rankings and traffic should be compared moving forward with data from before the update.
Due to the confusion caused by the overlap with the bug, Moz could not provide data or insights as it could not differentiate between the bug and the core update.
Data Providers on the Google August 2024 Core Update
Similarweb: The SimilarWeb SERP Seismometer reported a considerable spike in SERP ranking fluctuations. According to Similarweb, the August 2024 update showed a global average fluctuation level of 4.48 in ranking changes, the highest since 2021. They did not analyze the March 2024 core update numbers.
The fluctuations in the top results showed similar levels between the November 2023 and August 2024 updates. The top three and top five results exhibited similar ranking fluctuations, while the August update had lower levels of fluctuation in the top 10 results.
By niche, the retail sector saw the highest fluctuations, while the health niche experienced the lowest in the top three results. This trend held for the top five, although all four niches showed comparable fluctuation levels for the top ten results.
Semrush: Semrush noted high volatility with the August 2024 core update, with the peak volatility much greater than in March. Mordy Oberstein from Semrush remarked that while the peaks differed, the severity of the ranking movements was similar. August’s peak volatility was more than twice the volatility before March’s update, indicating an already heated Google search ranking climate.
Sistrix: Sistrix released lists of the major winners and losers from the August 2024 update.
Other Tools: Various ranking volatility tools showed increased activity over the update period, including Advanced Web Rankings, Cognitive SEO, Algoroo, SERPmetrics, SERPstat, Accuranker, Mangools, Wincher, Mozcast, and Data For SEO.
Other Information: Earlier observations indicated some movement for sites previously affected by updates, although only 44% of those surveyed reported a decline in rankings or traffic, 27% reported an increase, and 29% saw no change.
Overall, while some sites showed recovery from the September 2023 helpful content update, most did not see significant improvements. Google Search results remained volatile even after the update.
What Google Said About the August Core Update: John Mueller, Google’s Search Advocate, emphasized that the update aimed to improve result quality by featuring more genuinely useful content while demoting content crafted solely for ranking. It intended to boost useful content from small and independent publishers based on feedback after the March update.
Guidance on updates was revised on Google’s help page, offering detailed advice for those affected.
Previous Core Updates: The earlier core update in March 2024 was the largest, starting March 5 and concluding after 45 days on April 19.
What to Do if You Are Affected
Google has previously provided advice for sites hit by core updates:
- No specific actions are needed for recovery since negative impacts might not indicate issues with the pages.
- Google lists questions to consider if a site’s ranking is hit by a core update.
- Some recovery might occur between updates, but significant improvements usually appear after another core update.
In essence, content should be created to benefit people and not simply to rank highly in search engines.
- Google has noted that there’s no new action required following this update if sites have been producing meaningful content for users. For sites not performing well, they recommend consulting their guidance on creating helpful, reliable, people-first content.
More on Google Updates
For more insights, refer to coverage in the Google Algorithm Updates history.
Why We Care: The data offers a broad look at how sites are faring, but each site’s experience is unique. Being impacted negatively by a core update can be distressing if there’s no improvement even after newer updates. However, some have witnessed considerable advances. Here’s hoping your site sees positive changes.
