Google August 2024 core update: What we’re seeing so far

Some sites hit by the September 2023 helpful content update are seeing some small signs of life. Will it last?

Google unleashed the much-anticipated August 2024 core update Thursday morning. Less than 24 hours later, Google Search confirmed a ranking bug, which is still ongoing.

This means Google Search is volatile right now. And many SEOs and publishers have been documenting some of what they’ve seen since the August core update rollout started.

Caveats. It’s important to note the following, which can impact your Google organic search traffic:

• A ranking bug is impacting Google Search.
• The core update will take a month to fully rollout.
• AI Overviews expanded and added more links, plus show to signed out users.

What we’re seeing. In short, most are seeing nothing. This is common.

But, for the first time, we are seeing some signs of life for sites that were negatively impacted by the September 2023 helpful content update.

To be clear: Those sites did not “recover” and are nowhere near where they were prior to the September 2023 helpful content update. However, some are showing surges in Google Search ranking and visibility.

• Some helpful content update victims are noticing some increases in visibility in Google Search
• No one would classify those increases as “recoveries” just yet
• Sites hit by previous core updates, like the March 2024 core update are also seeing changes, some positive and some negative
• Some sites that were never hit by a core update are also seeing changes, some positive and some negative

I documented a lot of the more detailed chatter within the SEO industry on Search Engine Roundtable.

Glenn Gabe, an SEO consultant, has been tracking a few hundred sites negatively impacted by the helpful content update. Gabe wrote that 47 of those sites are seeing some small signs of life – some surges in visibility:

• “I’m now seeing more HCU(X) sites surge. Out of the 380+ sites I’m tracking, 47 have surged since the August core update began rolling out. Note, some have low visibility, but they have spiked with the update. Others have greater visibility and are surging back nicely.”

House Fresh and Retro Dodo. These two sites received a lot of media attention following their Google ranking issues. Both reported some fluctuations – not full recoveries – in the last few days. Here are those posts:

Why we care. We’re only a few days into a month-long rollout of the August core update while a search ranking bug is ongoing, so it’s hard to know whether sites will continue to improve and what’s causing this movement. Their traffic could keep improving – but it could also get worse in the coming days.

We don’t know which way this update is headed. But we will continue to watch and report back what we find. We hope you all find success and improvements with this Google algorithm update.