It’s that time again, Google has announced a new Core Update.
Who will gain traffic and rankings, and who will lose? Time will tell.
But first . . .
What happened at Google’s Web Creator Summit?
As many in the SEO industry know, Google’s latest HCU earlier this year caused chaos (it rolled out in March 2024)
100s of websites were severely impacted.
Tens of 1000s more ⏤ including businesses unrelated to the niche content sites that were directly affected also suffered drops in rankings and traffic.
People lost revenue streams, jobs, even livelihoods they’d spent years, even decades growing.
Google’s algorithm update was to blame.
In an attempt to make amends, Google held a Web Creator Summit on October 29, 2024, at the Googleplex in Mountain View, California.
Despite the nice gesture, and Google’s Search Advocate, Danny Sullivan trying to calm and reassure niche content creators, the results for those affected by the HCU this year are unchanged.
Here are the takeaways from the summit:
- Google’s Search Advocate, Danny Sullivan clearly said that the “content was not the issue”. In other words: If you lost traffic, it’s not your fault!
- Despite a lot going on at Google to look into this, including “query debugging,” Google engineers still can’t find the cause for some websites to lose rankings and traffic
- The good thing is, Google knows “we can do better.”
- However, recovery for affected websites is unlikely, or unclear. Some might recover. Others won’t.
- For any company too reliant on Google for traffic and revenue ⏤ even those who’ve never been negatively impacted by Core/Algorithm Updates ⏤ now is the time to diversify traffic sources. Google could take it away in an instant.
Now, let’s take a closer look at Google’s latest Core Update, and work out from what’s being said how this could impact and change web traffic, search results (SERPs), and rankings.
Google’s November 2024 Core Update
On 11 November, Google announced that they: “Released the November 2024 core update. The rollout may take up to 2 weeks to complete.”
So far, here’s what we are seeing ⏤ through real-time tracking of 3 million keywords in BrightEdge’s enterprise SEO platform, published in Search Engine Journal (SEJ):
1. Ranking in AI Overview (AIO) is even more important
SEJ notes that: “High-ranking organic content has a high chance of becoming a citation in AIO.”
Google hasn’t commented on what its AI engine is doing yet, but it seems to be that “AIO is grounding itself in organic search results that themselves are increasingly more precisely aligned to search query topicality.”
2. Shopping AIO and Search Results Are Changing
As we’ve seen this year, Google is changing how and what people find when they’re searching for something they want to buy.
It’s likely to be a way of driving more traffic to Google Ads results; therefore, it’s a revenue grab.
So far: “Organic shopping SERPs and AIO results are increasingly uncoupled and going in different different directions. BrightEdge interpreted the data to mean that additional supporting results in AIO are why organic and AIO for shopping queries increasingly don’t match.”
3. Volatility and Overlap Between SERPs and AIO
Before and since the rollout, there were upward then downward surges and spikes for keywords in SERPs and AIO.
SEJ notes that: “The scale of the changes at the lowest ranking levels (positions 21-30) indicate a high level of volatility.”
Here’s what BrightEdge is seeing in SERPs (remember, the rollout is still going on, so the dust hasn’t settled yet):
- Top 10 positions: +10.6% increase in volatility
- Positions 11-20: -5.9% decline in volatility
- Positions 21-30: +23.3% increase in volatility
Industry-specific changes in SERPs and AIO:
- eCommerce showing -22.1% shift in top citations
- Education observing moderate -7.3% adjustment
- Healthcare maintaining stability at -1.5% shift
- B2B tech (SaaS) recording -0.4% change
How different types of content are performing:
- Educational content maintains stronger stability
- Product-focused content showing higher volatility
- Research-oriented sites demonstrating resilience
- Industry expertise appears to gaining prominence
What does Google’s November Core Update mean for SEO?
At present, it’s too early to say.
Changing any kind of tactics or strategies during a core update is never smart. And nor would it do any good, until the update has finished.
It also depends on whether your business has been affected, or not.
In most cases, you’ll be unaffected.
As always, we recommend the following (with a new recommendation for AIO:
- Think about the content you are or want to produce:
- Can you have SEO content created that will help you show up in AI Overviews? If so, then that will help you rank higher and bring in more traffic.
- Find out how to improve the SEO of your website and content with an SEO Audit and Topical Map.
- This will also show you what Technical SEO fixes are required.
- Create a link building strategy that will increase your business’s backlink profile, which will help you rank higher in search engines, bringing in more traffic and sales leads.
- Create an SEO content marketing strategy that will have the same impact, improving your website’s DA, CTR, search rankings, traffic, and sales leads.
- To maximize results: Combine a link building strategy with SEO content marketing and on-page optimizations.
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