Google’s latest algorithm change, the August 2024 core update, has officially been announced, introducing several changes that could impact your website’s SEO and SERPs. This update is designed to prioritize high-quality content over material created solely for SEO. As these changes take effect, businesses need to understand how their marketing strategies might be affected.
Core Update for 2024
The Google core update specifically targets content that was created primarily to rank well on search engines rather than to provide value to users. If your content is focused more on SEO tactics than on delivering helpful information, you might see a drop in your rankings.
Google emphasized that this update takes feedback from content creators and other stakeholders into account. This includes giving smaller, independent websites a fair chance to rank well, provided they produce valuable content.
As with previous updates, this rollout is gradual and may take up to a month to fully implement. This extended period allows the changes to propagate across Google’s vast index, which means the full impact of the update won’t be immediately apparent.
What It Means for SEO
For businesses relying on SEO for their rankings, the August 2024 core update is an important reminder of quality over quantity. If your content strategy has been heavily SEO-focused, now is the time to pivot. Review your current content and consider whether it genuinely adds value for your audience. Are you providing in-depth answers to their questions? Are your articles and blog posts comprehensive and well-researched? These are the types of content the new Google core update will reward.
The Role of AI in Marketing
Google’s AI Overviews feature, initially launched in the U.S. and now expanding to six more countries, is another component of the update. This feature uses AI to summarize search results, potentially influencing how users interact with your content. This new update will allow users to save AI Overviews to return to for future queries. It is also testing out in-text links, which is likely an effort to mitigate AI Overviews’ impact on SEO. While Google claims that AI Overviews drive more website visits, the long-term impact, and trustworthiness of the results, remain uncertain.
The expansion of AI tools brings both opportunities and challenges. On the one hand, AI can help streamline content creation and optimize user engagement. On the other hand, it introduces new ethical considerations and potential disruptions to traditional traffic patterns.
Final Thoughts
The August 2024 core update is another step in Google’s mission to refine its search algorithms and provide better results and improved user experiences. It’s also likely an effort to deal with the sudden surge of AI-generated content that began sweeping the web in 2022. With the continued rise of AI in marketing, staying ahead of these changes is more important than ever.
At beMarketing, we’re here to help you navigate these updates and ensure your content remains competitive. In this case, that means making sure your content is genuinely helpful to your target audience. Our team is ready to optimize your SEO services, keeping your business in line with Google’s latest algorithms.
