The Google August 1st algorithm update is confirmed, as we said. I am also collecting data on this update to do a deep dive on sites impacted. But I wanted to give you quick feedback from Google and the SEO community about what they are saying about this specific update.
Google: Broad Core Update, Nothing To Fix
Google gave their line about it being a broad core update, which I am grateful for because before they wouldn't confirm these updates at all. But with that, Google says with these broad updates, Google won't share anything specific webmasters and SEOs can do to fix anything if their site was negatively impacted.
Google shared on Twitter this confirmation:
This week we released a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. Our guidance about such updates remains the same as in March, as we covered here: https://t.co/uPlEdSLHoX
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) August 1, 2018
Referencing their previous advice which was:
Each day, Google usually releases one or more changes designed to improve our results. Some are focused around specific improvements. Some are broad changes. Last week, we released a broad core algorithm update. We do these routinely several times per year....
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) March 12, 2018
There’s no “fix” for pages that may perform less well other than to remain focused on building great content. Over time, it may be that your content may rise relative to other pages.
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) March 12, 2018
Danny Sullivan of Google Responds More
First he confirmed it for me, there was an update:
Yes. I can confirm. See here: https://t.co/32yCe3pTF7
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) August 1, 2018
Then he said he won't add more than the messaging above:
Just like what we said in March.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) August 1, 2018
He expands on the previous messaging when some SEOs ask him to give up more details:
When we have updates where there are specific things that may help, we do try to tell you that. With these, there is nothing specific to do -- and we do think it's actionable to understand that, in that hopefully people don't try fixing things that aren't really "broken" ...
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) August 1, 2018
He references the quality raters guidelines:
Want to do better with a broad change? Have great content. Yeah, the same boring answer. But if you want a better idea of what we consider great content, read our raters guidelines. That's like almost 200 pages of things to consider: https://t.co/pO3AHxFVrV
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) August 1, 2018
References how it helps some SEOs see positive results:
And paying attention to them apparently can work. I really loved this tweet that seemed to be an example of that: https://t.co/iJXBG83cXZ
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) August 1, 2018
But again, quality raters is not a influence directly:
To be really clear, it doesn't work like that. Raters have no direct input into the algorithm. There's no "rater score" or anything like that about the sample of pages they review.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) August 2, 2018
Takes offense when he is trying to help the community he once was on the other side of the fence with:
I am "they." I've helped push for us to share more & be more specific, when we can. I also helped push that we should share when we do the broad updates and that explaining there's nothing specific "broken" is a good message rather than just saying "update!" and nothing else....
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) August 1, 2018
I'm deeply aware people will want to fix things, if there's a traffic change (and generally not share if they're suddenly rewarded). I think it is useful to say there's no specific thing happenings, so people don't just start making random changes. They should think broadly...
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) August 1, 2018
Danny again says, there is nothing specific to change. He says changing X, Y or Z won't matter, that if it was that simple, he would share it but it isn't that simple:
If we can share more actionable stuff with the broad updates, we will. But I hope telling people effectively that it is NOT X, Y or Z things is indeed helpful. And from last time, this is really key: https://t.co/tZdCAYDi5r
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) August 1, 2018
Takeaki Kanaya from Google Japan
He said on Twitter to just create quality content that Google searchers want. Here is the tweet translated:
"This week we've done a wide range of core algorithm updates. This is done several times a year, and what you can do to the impact of this update is to create the quality content that the search users are looking for as usual. See the English post for more information."
今週 Google では広範囲にわたったコア アルゴリズムのアップデートを実施しました。これは年に数回実施されるもので、このアップデートにより受けた影響に対してできることは、いつもと同様に検索ユーザーの探している良質なコンテンツを作っていただくことです。詳しくは英語の投稿をご覧ください。 https://t.co/wS4wKRNc4z
— 金谷 武明 Takeaki Kanaya (@jumpingknee) August 2, 2018
What Are the SEOs Saying?
What are the SEOs saying about this update? Well, there is a treasure trove of those negatively impacted commenting in our comments area on our first post. Again, submit your data over here - maybe I can find a pattern.
Here are some tweets, mostly folks sharing gains from this update:
Ok, I like this update 😏👀🙌 pic.twitter.com/k3sA1BLa1O
— Aleyda Solis (@aleyda) August 2, 2018
YEAH! Got this incredible email today from a client for whom we did a site review and made a bunch of recommendations. Their main terms were on page 2 and 3. And now they're #2 for their most important keyword.
— Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) July 27, 2018
Improved E-A-T, internal linking and much more. pic.twitter.com/Z7NeXVRtd8
Was up early digging into my data based on the major Google algorithm update yesterday. As I thought there would be, I'm seeing a boatload of significant volatility across sites. And many were impacted by the March or April updates as well. Here are some surges: pic.twitter.com/dw8JXcWSo6
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) August 2, 2018
Checking my data and saw this. Good example of a site seeing a big surge based on the latest Google algorithm update. Comparing Google organic traffic for today hour by hour versus the same day last week (and previous Wednesdays). Big changes. Wow. :) pic.twitter.com/ikmzzQkQSt
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) August 1, 2018
me too 😎👏 pic.twitter.com/iGnuJwlTkg
— Yusuf Ozbay (@yusuffozbay) August 2, 2018
wondering if this has anything to do with borked canonicalisation? Now seen scrapers outranking original content in a couple of cases like it's 2011: https://t.co/FELlZFaJ5q
— Will Critchlow (@willcritchlow) August 1, 2018
I've always said there's not going to be one smoking gun with major updates like these. Instead, there's typically a battery of smoking guns. Sites should significantly improve quality over the long-term. Root out all problems and improve the site. And keep those changes!
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) August 2, 2018
YMYL sites with no E - A - T drops.
— Frank Mabert (@frankmabert) August 2, 2018
A very minor decrease in traffic. Mostly the "deeper" pages affected.
— Rafayel Begoyan (@Rafayel_Begoyan) August 2, 2018
I really think that Google got better at truly recognizing which sites offer valuable help to searchers. Seeing nice gains in some sites that have worked really hard on providing more value than any of their competitors.
— Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) August 2, 2018
It's still bubbling. Biggest increase for a site we have done NOTHING with for months. The sites we have been improving have remained stagnant or have slightly dropped it seems. I shall name it the August 1 Quality Schmuality update.
— Riaan de Jager (@riaandej) August 2, 2018
One of the sites I manage got hit a while back, March time, it's gone a long way to recovering from this after a lot of work reducing thin / low quality content & a bit of quality link building.
— Mathew McCorry (@MatMccorry) August 2, 2018
One thing I have noticed with the rankings on some ecom sites I look at: If a category page ranks for a certain 'buying' keyword, but the landing page is broken down into further sub cats (2 Clicks to buy). This has been devalued in this update. 1/2
— Jonathan Hatton (@jonhattonSEO) August 2, 2018
All websites that have over taken these types of landing pages only need 1 click to add to basket. So user intent of the keyword seems to be taken into account. 2/2
— Jonathan Hatton (@jonhattonSEO) August 2, 2018
Some good stuff here. Of course, plenty of the whole "sites that pay me, did better" routine as well.
— Mark Aselstine (@MarkAselstine) August 2, 2018
Some interesting notes on proximity to conversion for landing pages. That's something that seems important in my wine niche right now
You can see more replies about what changes SEOs are seeing on this tweet.
So really - there is nothing specific we can learn to this date. This is what Google said. It is super early and we hope to get more from Google outside of just "build a great site." Because honestly, I think we all want to have a great site. The question is, what can we do to make it better. Again, I will see what I can find in the survey data - please fill it out, but it may lead to nothing.
I hope you all are surviving this last update!
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Twitter.
