SEO News You Can Use: Google Launches August Core Update

If you’re seeing any shift in your rankings, that’s because Google is rolling out another Core Update. Announced last August 23, 2023, by Google Search Central’s X account, the August 2023 Core Update is a routine algorithm tweak by Google to ensure it’s bringing users the most relevant and helpful results.

So far this year, Google has released three core updates for its ranking algorithm, namely:

• March 2023 core update
• April 2023 core update
• August 2023 core update

(Here’s the complete Google Search list of updates since 2020.)

Unlike other named updates like helpful content and spam, Google isn’t descriptive about what’s changed in a core update. 

August’s Core Update status is currently set in “Information,” which means that it’s currently being rolled out. The company will post a separate announcement when the rollout has been completed.

According to a help document by Google, core updates “may cause some pages that were previously under-rewarded to do better in search results.”

However, the opposite is also true: You may find yourself lower in search engine results pages (SERPs) this time around.

We suggest auditing your pages on the SERPs if there are any changes in how you rank. While it’s vital to fix identified issues, focusing on improving your website and content quality in the long term is more crucial.

More SEO News You Can Use

Search Experts Say Focus on Bigger Picture, Individual Signals: This advice would be very helpful if you’re gearing up for the August core update. In their latest Search Off The Record episode, Search Advocates John Mueller, Martin Splitt and Danny Sullivan offered insights on how you should do search engine optimization (SEO). Sullivan advised being user-centric with your content, while Mueller advised you should pump more authentic content, especially with the rise of AI content generation. Finally, Splitt said, “You should make something for your users and make it better.” Bottom line: “It’s a lot more now about the bigger picture,” said Mueller. There are so many technicalities and systems that it makes more sense to make your website helpful than optimizing for a particular ranking signal. Listen to the entire Search Off The Record Podcast episode here.

Demand Gen Campaigns Are Coming, To Replace Discovery Ads: Google Ads Liaison announced the beta testing for Demand Gen campaigns. Demand Gen ads will be served like Discovery campaigns in YouTube, Discover and Gmail feeds. However, the new artificial intelligence or AI-powered campaigns will also appear as in-stream ads and YouTube shorts. Other notable features include the maximize clicks bidding option, lookalike segments, ad previews and creative A/B experiments. We’ll also see a wider rollout this October, so it’s wise to test the new features and ad formats (short-form videos, carousel, portraits and square images) to maximize the final release. For the complete list of features, visit the Google Ads Help section. Sign up for the Demand Gen campaigns beta here.

Google Will Stop Displaying Anonymous Reviews on Local Service Ads: It’s time to say goodbye to anonymous reviews in Google’s local service ads (LSAs) starting August 25, 2023. In its update on the Local Services Help page, the company said it “stopped collecting anonymous reviews and will stop showing anonymous reviews on August 25, 2023.” This is massive since Google requires reviews before a business can run LSAs. But don’t worry; you can still run LSAs. But this time, you won’t need any review to do it since Google made this optional. Dive deeper into this story with this Search Engine Roundtable article.

Is Google Testing a New Logo After Eight Years? Rumors Debunked: A German blogger spotted an up-and-coming logo from the search engine giant. While still sporting the same colors familiar to Googlers, the logo is narrower with a longer tail in its “e.” Its last logo change was in 2015, meant to represent a Google you can find anywhere. While this sounds exciting, a Mastodon discussion with Mueller revealed this was only a result of browsing Google with Googlebot. If you use the company’s user agent, the logo will change from the real logo to a font-based text version in Futura. So, that’s it – the current Google logo stays.

TikTok Launches Search Ads Toggle: There’s a new search ad competitor in town, and it’s TikTok. Announced last August 22, 2023, TikTok’s Search Ads Toggle was released to serve TikTok ads right in the platform’s search results. Your ads are labeled “Sponsored” and served in varying positions based on “relevancy, user intent and broader learnings from other user behavior.” The short-form social media company sees this as a “new way to assist and enhance [the] user journey.” For TikTok users, this means more ads on your screen. But for TikTok advertisers, this presents a tremendous opportunity to reach younger audiences (mostly Gen Zs) as they search and scroll through the platform. Dive deeper into this story with this article from Search Engine Land.

Editor’s Note: “SEO News You Can Use” is a weekly blog post posted every Monday morning only on SEOblog.com, rounding up all the top SEO news from around the world. Our goal is to make SEOblog.com a one-stop-shop for everyone looking for SEO news, education and for hiring an SEO expert with our comprehensive SEO agency directory.