The digital landscape is constantly evolving and SEO is no exception to this, making it increasingly important to be proactive with your organic strategy to stay ahead of the curve.
Google owns approximately 91% of the SEO landscape and is constantly releasing new algorithm iterations to provide a better end product to users, alongside creating a more efficient business model.
These algorithm updates can have a significant impact to the search results page and in some cases to the businesses who rely on this as a source of revenue, making it vital for companies to stay up to date with the latest SEO news.
What are Google Algorithm Updates?
The creators of Google wanted to make the internet a more accessible place, however this mission wasn’t going to be achieved overnight, it’s thought that Google makes hundreds of updates every year often consisting of more large officially known algorithm updates.
The key purpose of these Google declared core updates is to focus on creating a search results page that will provide the most relevant and valuable information to users. However by doing that, websites often experience fluctuations in their organic rankings and traffic during these algorithm roll outs.
Google’s core algorithm updates aim to improve the overall search experience by:
- Prioritising high-quality content: by serving users with trustworthy, informative and valuable content.
- Combating spam: by actively identifying and removing spammy or low-quality websites from search results.
- Understanding user intent: by understanding the keyword within the user’s search query to provide the most relevant information.
What are the latest Google Algorithm Updates in 2024?
Staying informed about the latest Google algorithm updates enables you to monitor performance during these volatile periods. Here are five key updates that have shaped the SEO landscape so far in 2024:
1. March 2024 Core & Spam Update:
The release of these two algorithm updates were a turning point for SEO due to a large number of high performing websites being negatively impacted during the 45 day roll out.
This major core update worked in conjunction with the March 2024 Spam Update focusing on tackling low-quality content and spam. And for the first time Google shared how their algorithm updates would no longer rely on a single signal or system to show more helpful search results.
The goal of Google algorithm updates was to remove AI generated spam from being served on the search results page by 45% by using Google’s SpamBrain AI-powered spam detection system, as a result of this a greater emphasis was placed on Google’s helpful content system.
2. May 2024 Site Reputation Abuse:
Back in March during the core algorithm update and spam update Google amended their spam policies so it’s no surprise an update was released two months after focusing on this.
On the 5th May Google’s Site Reputation Abuse Policy went into play, this was designed to target websites using manipulating tactics which often focused on the quantity of content instead of quality content.
This crackdown is a part of Google’s wider strategy to create a search results page that consists of websites which are highly relevant to user’s query serving extremely valuable content.
As a result of this 2024 Site Reputation Abuse update Google focused on removing websites from its index which abuse this policy and instead awarded them with a manual action. In order for this penalty to be removed from a website it’s required to be manually reviewed by human experts at Google to ensure the site no longer violates the policy.
3. June 2024 Spam Update:
On the 20th June Google released another iteration of their spam update further refining March 2024s spam update lasting 7 days.
As a result, this algorithm update continued to focus on removing spammy websites from the search results page and Google’s index to continue providing a more valuable search results page for users.
Unlike the Site Reputation Abuse update, June’s spam algorithm was more general and broad, primarily targeting websites that violate Google’s spam policies; however the impact of this in most cases was less severe.
Typically speaking Google’s spam updates target site’s that aim to manipulate the search results by:
- Creating content using automatic methods at a large scale with low quality.
- Or websites with content that is low quality, thin or duplicate.
- Purchasing backlinks from spammy websites with the intended purpose to manipulate rankings.
- Sites that use black hat SEO techniques such as cloaked content and hidden redirects.
4. August 2024 Core Update:
Building on the Marchs’ Core Algorithm Update, Google’s August 2024 Core Update focused on further refining the search results page to improve the quality of the results being served to users.
A key reason for this iternation is to provide users with content that is highly relevant, actually valuable to them and demonstrates a human focus. This is because Google is shifting away from choosing to showcase content that has purely been created to rank and generated by AI without a human touch.
It’s worth noting that this release takes into consideration feedback heard following on from core updates earlier in the year which appeared to have a big impact on affiliate websites who write the content themselves based on their own experiences.
Plus, during this roll out Google updated its advice on website recovery. The main takeaway from this is that owners should wait at least a full week after noticing any negative impact from algorithm updates before making any on-site changes, this is partly because of the natural volatility caused during any roll out.
How to prepare for Google Algorithm Updates
Although we never can predict when Google is going to release a new algorithm update or what the update will focus on, the best way to always be prepared is by having an SEO strategy that is in accordance with Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines.
In summary the best way you can prepare for Google algorithm updates in 2024 is to:
- Focus on creating extremely relevant content that is of high quality and valuable to your target audience enabling you to provide signals of EEAT.
- Regularly earn topical backlinks from relevant high authority websites as these act as votes of confidence/trust to search engines.
- Maintain your website technical SEO health by conducting technical SEO audits to identify problem areas and ultimately implement fixes based on SEO best practice.
Maintaining and growing a website’s organic performance is becoming increasingly harder due to the ever evolving result page, but this is more achievable by focusing on providing relevant high-quality content, backlinks and user experience.
Need help navigating the latest SEO trends and updates? Our team of SEO experts at Found can help you craft a comprehensive strategy to optimise your website for success. Contact us today!
