Google announces August 2024 Core Update with focus on ‘independent’ publishers

Google has announced the launch of its August 2024 core update, marking a significant step in its ongoing efforts to enhance the quality of search results. This update, which will roll out over the next month, is designed to refine the search experience by prioritizing genuinely useful content and reducing the visibility of content created primarily to game the system.

John Mueller, Google’s Search Advocate, outlined the goals of this update, emphasizing a commitment to showcasing high-quality content from a diverse range of sources. “Today, we launched our August 2024 core update to Google Search. This update is designed to continue our work to improve the quality of our search results by showing more content that people find genuinely useful and less content that feels like it was made just to perform well on Search,” Mueller stated.

A key focus of this update is to address feedback received since the September 2023 Helpful Content Update, which had adversely affected many small and independent publishers. Google aims to rectify this by giving more visibility to original, valuable content from these smaller creators. Mueller acknowledged this shift, noting, “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.”

The August 2024 update seeks to better recognize and reward sites that have made notable improvements in their content quality. This adjustment is part of Google’s broader strategy to continuously enhance search results and surface the best content available on the web.

Alongside the update, Google has refreshed its guidance on core updates, providing more detailed advice for those who may experience fluctuations in their rankings. Despite the new update, Google maintains that there are no specific actions required for recovery. The emphasis remains on creating content that genuinely serves the needs of users, rather than merely focusing on search engine performance.

“There’s nothing new or special that creators need to do for this update as long as they’ve been making satisfying content meant for people,” Google advised. For those noticing a dip in rankings, Google recommends revisiting their guidance on creating helpful, reliable, and people-first content.