August 2024 Core Update – Major Developments & Recoveries so far

Core updates cause chaos. Rankings are altered, new websites surface on the SERPs, volatility is high (in most cases), and so is uncertainty. SEOs and webmasters remain on their toes, constantly monitoring the rise and decline in traffic and spotting any unusual patterns. So, you see lots of things start unfolding at the same thing. And as a matter of fact, all of it makes sense. 

Because, by definition, core updates simply mean that Google is overhauling search algorithms and systems and introducing significant, broad changes to them. These changes improve how Google’s systems and algorithms assess the content in the evergrowing Search. This overhaul, in its entirety, causes many under-rewarded, under-appreciated pages to do better in Search.

What is Google August Core Update about?

So, what was so special about the August Core Update, and why was it one of the most anticipated core updates of all time? To tell you the full story, we have to go a little back in time, like last year, Sep 2023, which was the onset of development that wreaked havoc.

Back in September 2023, Helpful Content Update hit many sites. A range of businesses and brands that followed Google SEO guidelines all these years were affected. This didn’t stop there; the majority of those sites faced further losses with the next October Core Update. Fast forward to March 2024, we got a massive update packed with multiple components, which was also one of the longest-running updates. Unfortunately, no single valid recovery was witnessed. It was a helpless situation when people were putting in so much effort and going to wild lengths to regain their rankings.

John Mueller said in one of his tweets that creators should wait for the next Core Update because chances are that affected sites may observe some coveted recoveries. 

Therefore, it was likely the last straw for many website owners. 

Then on August 15, 2024, Google announced the August Core Update that may take up to a month to complete.   

What stood out with this second big Google core update of the year was that Google took into account the experiences and feedback of creators and brand owners over the past few months. The updated document said: 

“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 create useful, original content when relevant to users’ searches. This is an area we’ll continue to address in future updates. This update also aims to better capture improvements that sites may have made so we can continue to show the best of the web.”

New Sections in the Help Page

In addition to that, multiple helpful sections were added to the help page about core updates that addressed what people are supposed to do if they notice changes after a rollout is complete. 

For instance, the novel section addresses the nightmarish situation of experiencing a huge drop during an update and provides you a headstart on assessing your site as a whole. Alongside that, we’ve also got a section on important pointers to be mindful of when making changes to the website and focusing on ways that will actually help you regain your traffic and rankings.    

Recoveries 

Now the commendable and the major highlight of this August Update is that it’s bringing sites back to life that people assumed lost causes after the previous March Update. We’re witnessing many recoveries unfolding in real time thanks to eminent SEO influencers, service providers, and agencies. 

Here are the HCU-hit sites finally showing signs of life as reported by Glenn Gabe. On 19th August, he reported that a total of 47 sites are seeing a visible boost since the August update began rolling out.  

And by August 26th, that number jumped to 72 sites that were experiencing surges after a long period. 

And here’s Lily Ray reporting another major recovery of the HCU site, and that too to 80%.  

Retro Dodo is also showing some progress in terms of traffic after experiencing massive losses since last September. Brandon Saltalamacchia tweeted a hike on August 28th. 

During researching for possible HCU recoveries, we also came across this detailed case study on Mediavine-monetized sites by Ian H. Not only does it allow you to access spreadsheet containing traffic data of more than 2000 sites but also shares useful tips on applying filters to gain all sorts of Google core update insights about the possible recoveries. 

According to this case study: 

“There are multiple sites with drops of more than 95%. Some of them have 100%+ gains since the start of the August Core update! Such as independentgolfreviews (.com), which is down 97% since October, but up a whopping 714% since August 15th!” 

AI-sites are still down. 

We saw many AI content sites getting deindexed, de-ranked, and straight-up flatlining during the March Update. So, this time, we did a quick check again and most of them are still down to zero.  

It may take up to 15  or even more days for this Google core update to complete. We might see more interesting developments during the current rollout and come up with another information-filled discourse. There can be reversals, more recoveries, and intense volatilities in days to come, so we’ll keep monitoring the Search to update you.