Google has just posted that it has started the release of its November 2024 core update and is expected to take up to 2 weeks to complete.
This comes only months after the August 2024 core update which decimated the traffic of numerous sites (at least those that went online to acknowledge the issue).
It’s not currently clear what this latest update aims to achieve, but if we’re going by the trend of the last few updates, it will be along the lines of useful content. Information that is genuinely useful and less about inserting the right keywords and structuring the content in a way that appeals to search engines only.
In the last update, Google mentioned they took feedback from many users and creators. Just last month, they hosted a creator summit at Googleplex which were frowned upon by many who see Google as simply using creators, but not actually taking on board the feedback around how their businesses and peoples livelihoods essentially live and die by Google search results.
One of the winners of the August round of updates was UGC sites (user generated content) sites like Reddit, Pinterest, Quora and Medium. This is making it difficult for any small time bloggers or content writers to capture the attention in search results, or provide independent answers without handing over their knowledge and data to a 3rd party platform.
What to do if you are impacted by this latest update
Unfortunately at this stage, we don’t know what the impact of this latest update will be, and Google seldom ever supplies you with any specific actions to take to recover your traffic and rankings.
Their advice is always about writing short, helpful content for people, and not search engines. The last, genuinely helpful piece of advice was actually in May 2011 (I know!) around the time of the Panda update. The section, “What counts as a high-quality site?” is where the guide begins.
As always, we suggest you never just rely on one source of traffic as that really puts you in a bind if an update like this happens, and everything is completely out of your control. Pushing users to join your email newsletter, Facebook groups, or other ways to connect are now more important than ever to safeguard yourself from sudden hits like this.
