Google officially announced the launch of its most recent Google core update.
It comes after the prior core update, which took place in March.
It's important that SEOs monitor their SERP ranks and overall organic traffic throughout the rollout because it should take the update about two weeks to finish.
What Is the Core Update's Purpose?
Like earlier iterations, Google's main changes focus on enhancing the algorithm's quality to guarantee users receive the most pertinent, precise, and recent search results.
It's also important to understand that updates to the fundamental algorithm DO NOT target particular websites or pages.
As a result, you don't have to be concerned about manual penalties or the deindexing of your website due to spam or other rule violations.
That doesn't mean that your website won't experience any changes in the SERP results. This update will undoubtedly have an impact on some websites.
The fact is, only some websites will experience negative consequences.
In fact, several high-quality, relevant websites that have historically gone unnoticed may benefit greatly from this upgrade.
These previously low-ranking websites may experience major increases in their SERP rankings as a result of the tweaks made to Google's search algorithm.
In contrast, other websites that previously ranked highly in the SERPs can suffer a drop in their rankings.
Keep reading to find out everything there is to know about Google's most recent core update.
All Google’s Updates in 2023
There have only been two major updates in 2023 so far: the most recent one, which recently launched, and the one from March.
In addition, there have been two upgrades to the reviews: one in April and a sizable update to the product reviews in February that just finished rolling out on March 7th.
The last significant core upgrade before 2023 occurred in September of 2022. However, it had less effect than earlier updates to the core algorithm.
Following Google's announcement of the August 2023 core update, SEO experts worldwide were flooded with comments and rumors.
Numerous website owners eagerly await the change's effects, with some expressing confidence in its favorable consequences.
Although Google made its formal statement on August 22nd, some SEOs assert that they had already seen indications of the update several days earlier.
The fact that many users claim to have noticed traffic declines 5–7 days before Google's formal statement suggests that the change has likely been rolling out secretly for a week or two.
Nevertheless, the implementation procedure will take at least a few weeks, and once it is complete, Google will update the Google rankings release history page.
Until the deployment is finished, SEOs should keep a close check on their metrics as well as their SERP ranks.
There's no need to freak out because it's also very feasible that the upgrade won't have any impact at all on your website.
How Does Losing Position Rankings Affect Your Website?
Observing negative effects from a core update does not necessarily mean that your website has a problem or is not ranking well, unlike other Google updates, such as the most recent Link Spam Update.
As previously mentioned, websites that were previously ranking poorly but were extremely relevant to user searches may experience an increase in their ranks, which will result in ranking decreases for other websites.
In other words, if a website outranks you, it presumably has more relevant and higher-quality material.
It doesn't imply that your website has a technical problem (like crawling issues, duplicate content, or no index tags) or that you were reported for link or keyword spam.
Furthermore, you don't need to be concerned about problems with your website, URL, or internal linking scheme.
Instead, you should put all of your attention into enhancing your content's authority, quality, and relevancy.
Additionally, make sure that each piece of content you produce for your website has the initials E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness).
E-A-T, which stands for experience, received an additional E in December 2022 as part of an upgrade to Google's Quality Rater Guidelines.
As a result, Google's quality raters are now taught to favor fresh content that exhibits first-hand experience, such as by presenting proof that you've actually used the product you're evaluating.
Google's team of quality raters decides what constitutes a high-quality website, and this information then affects Google's search algorithms.
This means that E-E-A-T will probably have a big part in the most recent core update, so make sure to include it in your material.
Google's Recommended Recovery Questions
If the core update has a negative influence on your website, Google has a list of questions you can consider asking yourself to help with content quality.
It's crucial to stress that pages that experience performance drops after core updates are not always inherently "wrong."
They offered the following 'best-movies list' example to aid SEOs in comprehending its procedure when developing core updates:
Consider compiling a list of the best 100 movies in 2021. In 2024, you refresh the list. Natural change will occur. Now, a few brand-new, incredible movies that didn't exist before will be considered for inclusion. The top films on the list may move down. The list will be updated.
Therefore, Google's core updates are comparable to updating a list of the greatest films to reflect the times.
Google provides the following queries to assist you in raising the caliber of your content in order to regain any lost SERP positions because their search engines favor excellent content that is highly relevant:
Do you use original research, ideas, or analysis in your writing?
Do you thoroughly introduce the subject that goes beyond the obvious?
Does the content that uses quotes from other sources go beyond just rewriting them to offer uniqueness and value?
Is the summary of the information in the material given in the header reasonable and accurate?
Have you avoided using 'click-bait' titles with overstated claims?
Is this the kind of information you want to post on social media?
You can boost SERP rankings by identifying flaws in your content's quality with the help of the answers to these questions.
Recovery Time
If improvements warrant it, it normally takes several months for pages to regain ranks lost due to a core update but doing lots of off page activities on high DA sites will help those pages to regain the lost rank and backlinks pretty much fast.
Google is always modifying its algorithms. Between the larger core updates, it may provide smaller updates that will benefit pages that have undergone modifications.
Final Thoughts
Businesses and SEO experts should exercise patience as the effects of Google's August 2023 core algorithm update become evident. Until then, they should improve website quality and avoid fast fixes.