In August 2024, Google updated some of its search algorithms, significantly impacting the search rankings in many industries. While Google keeps improving how it offers the best user experience possible, marketers still must follow to compete. This article describes the essential elements of the update and explains what marketers should do to succeed in the changed environment.
Key Takeaways:
- Learn how to adapt to movement in ranking factors, paying close attention to E-E-A-T, which stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
- Despite the changes, technical SEO and the effort to generate the right content are still helpful.
What Is the August 2024 Google Core Update?
Google’s recent changes focus on improving how search engine algorithms look and interpret content on the website. Such changes target minor alterations to ranking factors that would better fit the user’s goal of the particular search, facilitating the offering of more relevant and valuable search results. The same applies to the modifications made in August 2024, which aimed to optimize the quality of content to reduce the incorporation of low-quality or even out-of-topic content.
According to a report by Search Engine Journal, core updates, like the August 2024 update, are designed to improve content quality by adjusting how Google ranks relevance and user experience factors.
How Does the Update Impact Marketers?
The primary focus of the August 2024 update is on content quality, user experience, and aligning with Google’s E-E-A-T framework:
● Expertise: Google remains keen on filtering content created by such experts as the academic discipline highlights.
● Experience: Content should be practical and realistic with advice or recommendations for the site user.
● Authoritativeness: The greater authority of the sources in one or another field helps lift the rank of the content.
● Trustworthiness: Sites that contain relevant, sourced, and accurate information are rewarded.
Marketing professionals must tune their content creation tactics to meet the guidelines while improving the general user experience. Backlinko’s study on SEO trends emphasizes the growing importance of E-E-A-T in ranking success, especially as Google continues to refine its algorithms for better intent matching.
Critical Areas of Focus for Marketers
- Content Quality Over Quantity
Google has always preferred quality content, and in this update, as seen in August 2024, the company took measures against thin or low-quality pages. Therefore, the content must be well-researched, informative, and relevant to the readers at any given time. It is no longer possible to fill websites with numerous separate low-quality pages.
Actionable Steps:
● Perform a content audit to know which pages are not pulling the traffic.
● Subscribe to long reads because such articles provide detailed coverage of topics.
● Revise old posts occasionally to make them as current as possible.
2. User Experience and Engagement Indicators
Another critical factor that needs to be considered when assessing( a page’s loading speed, user interaction, and user experience (UX) is the user experience or UX). The update addresses the relevance of the so-called Core Web Vitals—the indicators to assess the loading speed of a page, how it interacts with users, and its visual steadiness. Pages that meet the strong signal of usability are likely to perform better in the search results.
Actionable Steps:
● Enhance the speed of loading the website.
● Check for mobile and browser compatibility.
● Ensure that the website does not confound navigation and try to lower the bounce rate.
3. Relevance and Content Intent
Google is improving its explicit understanding of users’ needs and ability to provide them with relevant content. It now rewards sensible answers to user questions rather than pages crammed with related keywords. Based on the findings, digital marketers should pay attention to semantic search, use keywords, and match user expectations.
Actionable Steps:
● Conduct keyword research to target the queries in terms of user intent.
● Organize content to address each question with a clear and brief response.
● Stay keyed into user behavior and how online people look for online information.
4. E-E-A-T Compliance
Google continues to focus on this area, so marketers must ensure that the content published online demonstrates E-E-A-T. This encompasses gaining the audience’s trust by posting high-quality content about the site sourced and authored by experts.
Actionable Steps:
● Advise potential authors to display their credentials and experience in some areas of specialization.
● It is advisable to link the sources of the claims to authorities to support the given arguments.
● Get as many good-quality backlinks as possible from other trusted sites to your site.
How to Thrive After the August 2024 Update
To address these changes, marketers require a comprehensive strategy offering them a solutions-focused perspective. When dealing with other sites, the approach is content optimization, technical optimization, and subsequent modification and improvement depending on the users’ activities and trends. Here’s a breakdown of how to thrive:
● Prioritize User-First Content: Always think about your user while writing, not only while optimizing for search engines. Ensure the material is interesting, scholarly, and pertinent to the discussion.
● Stay Updated on Best Practices: SEO is constantly evolving. However, always ensure you know the current market trends and try to fit the organization into them where possible.
● Measure and Adapt: Lastly, the analytics feature will be employed to measure the effectiveness of the update in improving the site’s performance. If ranks start falling, it is time to work on providing better content to the audience and improving day-to-day site usage.
● Leverage AI and Automation: Some techniques that are applied include content optimization driven by artificial intelligence to help marketers update themselves on user actions and the lack of sufficient content.
The latest August 2024 Google Core Update reminds us that quality content can go hand in hand with relevancy and user satisfaction. Our Performance marketing agency Cut N Cue Media, strongly position themselves to address E-E-A-T, enhance technical optimization, and capture user intent will benefit significantly from this new environment. Our primary concern is pinpointing and monitoring changes in the algorithm to harmonize with the latest updates.
