Businesses, website owners, and SMEs could risk fluctuating search engine rankings over the next few weeks. This is because Google has just started rolling out its August 2024 Core Update which is set to change the search landscape.
The update could prove to be a blessing for business owners who are just starting out but have a certain amount of expertise in their chosen industry. Before the update, Google had a tendency to favour the bigger names addressing a user’s search query. These larger names were seen as having a greater authority, and so were often bumped up the search engine results to answer a searcher’s question. The new update recognises that smaller websites with less traffic could be just as, if not more, valuable than the big-hitters, so instead the August 2024 Core Update will focus on quality of content and relevancy to the search, with authority taking more of a back seat. As a new business, this could help your pages soar up the search engine results page (SERP).
What Is Included In Google’s August Update?
Google has put together a helpful guide for website owners covering what you need to know about the August 2024 Core Update, but we’ll cover the main points for business owners here.
The main interest for business and website owners is that the new update will prioritise relevant search results over how big or small a website is. Google themselves said: “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, when relevant to users’ searches”.
What Will The Impact Be For Business Owners?
For those businesses putting out low quality content on their website, the impact could be quite severe. Google included in their update notes a reminder to always focus on helpful content. That means that creating content for content’s sake to build an online presence and authority will no longer be helpful to budding businesses. Established SMEs that have enjoyed high SERP rankings over the years without much thought about the quality of their content will likely be punished with poor results moving forwards.
Instead, content should now serve a purpose. It should answer user’s queries directly, or else provide them with a useful product or service based on what they’re looking for. If businesses get this right, and create useful, high-quality, and helpful content that directly addresses what search engine user’s are looking for, then they’ll find that their website will start to see improvements in ranking and traffic over the next few months.
How Long Will It Take For The Full Impact Of The Summer 2024 Update To Be Felt?
Some website and business owners are already reporting changes to their traffic and SERP rankings, but the update is still in the very early days. It takes a while for these things to roll out fully, and the full impact may not be felt for a couple of months, at which point Google is liable to roll out another update, reflecting the ever changing needs of their users.
It can be frustrating as a business owner to try and constantly keep up with Google’s shifting goalposts, but this time Google does have some advice for website owners about how to respond to their latest update…
What Should I Do As A Website Owner To Impress Google?
Google themselves recommend 3 key actions:
- DO NOT make small changes for the sake of it
- DO focus on improving content and the user experience
- DO NOT delete useful content when it can be revised instead to improve it
If you’re a business owner, you’ll need to review the content on your site to ensure it’s serving a purpose, but if you notice fluctuating results as the update rolls out over the coming weeks, don’t panic too much. Updates have a tendency to send traffic and SERP results into haywire, and making dramatic changes could actually hinder your performance long term.
For now, it’s probably best to wait and see what the update means for your business, and then make changes if you’ve noticed significant dips in performance later down the line. As a business, your website is a crucial tool that can support you with growing and reaching your customers, so don’t neglect it.
Smaller businesses should start monitoring the effects of the August 2024 Core Update to see if it makes a difference to their website, as they may soon see more visitors to their site, and potentially more customers as a result.
