Expert Guide: Optimize for Google’s latest August 2024 Update!

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Read time: 5 minutesHey SEO enthusiasts,Google's August 2024 Core Update is done, reshaping the SEO landscape yet again. This core update began rolling out on August 15 and focuses heavily on improving content quality and relevance.With AI overviews and a stronger emphasis on E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness), this update underscores the importance of producing helpful, user-focused content.What you’ll find in this week’s newsletter:

• What the August core update is all about

• Shane’s tips to optimize your site after the update

• This week’s featured agency

• New on the blog

What You Need to Know About the August 2024 Core Update

This update aims to reward websites that provide genuine value by improving their content’s relevance and user experience. It’s notably impactful for industries with high YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) content, such as health, finance, and safety.Here’s the original tweet from the GSC account:

Key elements of this update include:- Improved user experience: Fast loading, mobile-friendly sites are more important than ever. Google's algorithm now heavily favors sites with smooth navigation and fast page speeds, which is key for mobile-first indexing.- E-E-A-T at the forefront: Google continues to emphasize the importance of showing experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness in your content. Pages that demonstrate these qualities are likely to rank higher.- AI overviews influence rankings: Google's AI-generated overviews, tied into their core ranking systems, are designed to enhance search results by showcasing relevant, user-centric information. As AI integration deepens, your content must be easily digestible and well-structured for AI to interpret accurately. If you’d like to learn more about the update, click here.

Shane’s SEO Tips: How to Optimize After the August Update

- Audit and analyze: Review your site’s performance using Google Search Console and track any significant shifts in rankings. This data will help identify content or technical areas requiring updates. You can also use tools like Semrush to perform an audit.- Update E-E-A-T signals: Ensure your content showcases real-world experience and expertise. Include credentials, customer reviews, and hands-on examples to boost trustworthiness.- Speed optimization: Use Google’s Core Web Vitals metrics to measure and enhance your site speed, especially on mobile devices. Compress images, enable lazy loading, and reduce redirects to improve load times.- Focus on freshness: Keep your content up-to-date. Google rewards sites that frequently update old content with new insights, corrections, and expanded information.- AI-readable content: Structure your content clearly with headings, lists, and schema markup to ensure it’s easily interpretable by AI systems. Simplify complex topics with visuals and bullet points for added engagement.- Internal linking: Strengthen your internal linking structure to help Google’s bots crawl your site more efficiently and understand the hierarchy of your content.

With Google’s latest core update, focusing on content quality and user experience is more important than ever. Keep optimizing by staying user-focused, enhancing your E-E-A-T signals, and ensuring your site performs smoothly.Stay tuned for more updates, and let’s keep your site ranking high!