Completion of August 2024 core update

So, finally, after 19 days, Google completed the rollout. Though, the initial 4 days were related to the ranking bug fixes according to John Muller.

But Mishita, what was this update about?

My dear SEO professional this update was related to fixes & improvements of the September 2023 update. Many sites that were impacted during that phase were not seeing positive impacts even after they made changes as per the algorithm & other policies.

Therefore, the August 2024 update is here bringing all the positive impacts & good news to well-deserved sites, be it a small site, or a big site.

That's a good thing.

Can we say that the hard work has been paid off for these sites?

Well, according to a survey by search engine journal (SEJ),

44% of the sites have seen a dip in their rankings & traffic, 27% of the sites have seen an increase in their rankings & traffic, and 29% of the sites have seen no change.

This poll had 3614 polls.

Is there any advice for these 44% of sites to see improvements in the future?

Certainly, they can focus on substantive and user-centric fixes instead of quick fixes. Removing content should be the last step for the site owners & SEO professionals, only if the content is not user-friendly.

What about AI overviews, are these affected by the core update?

Yes, as it is part of the search. AI overviews are all the more crucial now as they intertwine with the core ranking systems.

That's great.

As the journey on SERP is not always smooth, site owners & SEO professionals need to go with user-centric content & see their sites sailing smoothly through SERP.