SEO News Digest: August Core Update insights, GA4 Benchmarking data, and Yelp’s legal battle against Google

Ready to discuss the latest SEO news? Let's roll!

Updates

• August Core Update is now done rolling out

Although the rollout was expected to last for about a month, the search giant’s team managed to wrap it up in just three weeks (August 15 - September 3).

This update is notable because it’s supposed to include feedback from creators which Google has been collecting over the past few months. Why, you may ask? To better capture site improvements, especially for smaller or independent websites.

So, does it work as expected?

Barry Schwartz’s survey across several platforms shows that more sites saw declines than improvements:

• 44% experienced a drop
• 27% saw jumps
• 28% remained unchanged

While there are reports that some websites got ‘resurrected’ after the September 2023 Helpful Content Update (HCU), not all were restored. And of the ones that did, only a handful managed to get back to pre-HCU performance levels. Though most sites did see minor improvements, they’re still far away from where they were—some report only reaching 10-20% of what they achieved a year ago.

Documentation

• GSC Search Appearance update

Definitions for the types of results tracked by the Console were added, along with corresponding field/variable values for bulk export and API use.

• Video SEO guidelines expanded

Back in December, transition to Video mode was apparently unclear for users. So based on user feedback and due to popular demand, Google has provided more detailed explanations on videos.

• Organization Schema Markup

Previously, Organization Markup was simply described as a way to “let Google know about your organization's administrative details.”?

Now, it’s been clarified that some data from this markup will appear in search results or knowledge panels, while other parts help organize backend data—like distinguishing between two companies with the same name using ISO 6523 or NAICS codes.

• Using OG title in snippets OG (Open Graph) markup is data about a page/site intended for social media sharing that ensures a link gets a nice title, description, and image when shared.

We already know that Google can rewrite page titles and meta descriptions in search snippets if it deems necessary. Well, now they’ve added og:title to the list of sources they may pull data from, alongside title tags, H1s, link anchors, and more. Follow the link for the full story.

Google Products

• Google Trends email subscriptions going away next month Google will discontinue the Google Trends email subscription service on October 29, 2024. Google sent emails to those who had subscribed to Google Trends over email saying, "Google Trends trend notifications will no longer be supported and existing alerts will no longer be sent."

• Google Analytics 4 introduces benchmarking data

Now, you can compare your site’s performance against the overall trends in your industry niche.

Features / Interface

• (test, Android-only?) "From your notifications” box in search

This seems to be related to push notifications from Google News and Discover.

• (test) Shopping updates

Products are grouped by common characteristics (similar to how organic results happen to be organized), new labels, collapsible carousels, and an improved Deals section.

Tidbits

• Yelp files lawsuit against Google

While everyone is ganging up on Google, Yelp has also decided to file a lawsuit against the search colossal. What’s the claim? Say it with me, folks: “monopolization!”. And in this specific case, local search monopolization.

However, the federal court rejected Yelp’s arguments, and instead of support, Yelp faced backlash on social media for its own questionable business practices.