The (Current) Winners and Losers of Google’s August Core Update
By: Haniya Rae
For many publishers, big and small, Google’s August Core Update has not been kind. Many sites are still in the red and haven’t begun to see any clear signs of regaining traffic. A few sites are starting on the path to recovery, with some uptick in traffic in the last few days. But this process is only a week and a half in — and can take months to play out.
That being said, there are clear trends from this update, and from the last few updates.
“The main takeaway with this, and that’s consistent with the other updates, is that Google’s users have given them feedback that these sites don’t feel authentic,” says Lily Ray, vice president of strategy and research at Amsive, who has been tracking and posting about the latest update and the updates in previous years. Users have told Google some sites, “feel like they’re AI-generated.” She specifies that it doesn’t matter if you’re a niche or a big media brand: Google is doing this across the board regardless of the site size.
Clear Losers: Pop-up Ads, Poor UX, Affiliate Links, Quantity
On an individual basis, sites may be affected by different issues, which makes it hard to know what to change. Google’s senior search analyst John Mueller made a pointed comment on LinkedIn for everyone to be patient as the update hasn’t even finished rolling out yet: “You’d really need to wait until the core update finishes rolling out to make any call about its effect.” But he says that shouldn’t stop anyone from making improvements to their site before the rollout is finished, just that it’d be hard to compare later on. (Mueller also flagged a separate ranking issue within the last few days, aside from the core update, that added to the confusion. Luckily that issue has since been resolved.) Still, this update has been destructive for thousands and thousands of businesses, so it’s hard not to react.
“Everyone is sharing what they’re seeing anecdotally,” says Ray. “It’s not going after individual niches. It’s going after websites that drove a ton of traffic and had affiliate links and display ads. The sites themselves were engineered to make money off the SEO.”
As for how sites are faring in general, the data is mixed: Some sites that were hit during the 2023 update are still struggling. Some that were hit hard by the March update seem to be improving. However, there are some larger trends with sites adversely affected that experts have identified.
“Anecdotally, ad-heavy sites and sites with poor UX continue to fare poorly,” says Cyrus Shepard, founder of Zyppy SEO, who manages a database of sites and has been tracking the effects of this update. These sites may have been hit a year ago in September, or last March, and don’t show much improvement. Of the sites Shepard monitors, only around 20% of the sites that saw significant declines in Google traffic over the past year are now seeing at least some recovery. Another 20% of sites he manages that saw significant gains over the past 12 months are now facing declines.
“Google says to, ‘stop doing things for SEO,’ and I believe that’s sound advice,” says Shepard.
Some things Shepherd specifically mentions are internal links, SEO plugins, catchy title tags, and writing 5000-word articles — these measures are superficial and don’t address the needs of readers. “I think SEO has a long life for promoting businesses, but if I were to start a site today, I’d focus on publishing content that is unique to the degree that other people (or AI) couldn’t replicate,” says Shepard.
Clear Winners: Specificity, Personal Experience, Quality
So what does that mean for media companies? It sounds like returning to the web of the early 2000s, as Shepard notes things like forum conversations, original videos and photography, and tools specific and useful to the audience, all provide audience value.
Sites that cover specific topics, instead of trying to be everything to every audience, are also faring better, according to Shepard.
“In travel niches, Google seems to favor geographic specificity more,” he says. “For example, a website specifically about New York City seems to have a clear advantage over a site that covers multiple New York travel queries.”
Shepard also found that first-person accounts and hands-on experience have been rewarded. Original information, photos, and analysis also translate to quality in Google’s eyes — which seems easy enough on paper, but many sites opt instead to chase what competitors have done, such as targeting the same keywords and using the same sources.
Google’s page on helpful content suggests rewriting content in a way that makes it easier for audiences to understand and offers several steps companies can take to make their ratings better. But even Google’s helpful content guide doesn’t seem to match what the algorithm is rewarding. Say, for example, Google asks for a background about the author on the publisher’s site. In theory, adding author bios should help with page rankings. However, according to this study from Shepard’s database, even with author pages and author bios on the page, it hasn’t helped with visibility.
If it’s helpful to remember, there are more than 14,000 ranking factors noted in the recent Google API Leak. Trying to implement all of them is a fool’s errand. “There are thousands of signals,” says Ray. “Google’s employees don’t know what these signals are.”
What’s Next for Impacted Media Companies?
One interesting thing to note is that the Helpful Content Update was initially intended as a separate set of guidelines for niche and informational sites that were mostly ad and affiliate-supported. But Google has since incorporated this system into its core algorithm as of March 2024, meaning almost any type of website can be impacted by Google’s Helpful Content system.
For any company hit, Ray echoes Mueller and maintains that it’s still too soon to see the full effects, but that the first few days after will be a part of an ongoing trend. Before making changes, Ray stresses to isolate what happened, if possible. For example, perhaps someone on your team accidentally delisted a bunch of sites and that’s why rankings are down. It’s also not just if you were impacted, but when you were impacted. Reading about specific updates Google applied when your site was impacted is a good baseline to know what changed, and how to address it.
“The thing about SEO is sometimes you think it’s working really well and it works for 6 months,” says Ray. “You see an amazing upward trajectory for 6 months and then you see it crash and burn. What seemed like amazing SEO opportunities becomes a major liability over time.”
For many companies, instead of jumping right to the content, a complete strategy change is likely in order. This is easier said than done if you’re losing money for months after an update. However, some publishers and sites cease content production for months to evaluate what needs to change and how to implement it instead of continuing full steam ahead.
“Who can drive the most with the least?” says Ray, meaning fewer pages, less on the page, and less fussing over what the algorithm seems to want. “That’s the direction this is going.”
