Each month, Lumar’s in-house tech SEO experts hand-pick some of the SEO industry’s top news items from across the web to keep you up-to-date on all things SEO and website optimization.
Let’s dig into the key SEO industry headlines from August…
Google announces a new core algorithm update in August
Google’s latest core algorithm update officially launched Thursday, August 15th, after weeks of generally high SERP volatility. Interestingly, Google’s announcement states that the update “takes into account the feedback we’ve heard from some creators and others over the past few months,” leading many to believe that sites hit by last Autumn’s controversial “Helpful Content Update” may finally see some improvements. The early signs are promising for some, but many are reporting sites like Reddit and the Google-owned YouTube are among the biggest winners so far.
Source: Google Search Central, “What to know about our August 2024 core update”
Google reports mysterious search ranking issues
Google first reported issues with ranking in Search on August 15th. Google stated these issues were separate from the August core update, but no other details were published. As of August 20, the issue was reportedly fixed, with no other updates or information provided.
Per Google’s report:
“There’s an ongoing issue with ranking in Google Search that’s affecting a large number of search results. We’ve identified the root cause and this issue is unrelated to the ongoing core update rollout.”
Source: Google Search Status Dashboard
New recommendations in Google Search Console
A new feature in Google Search Console (GSC) aims to make the platform even more useful for SEOs. New site recommendations in GSC aim to provide website managers with suggested actions they can take to improve their presence on Google Search. We can expect a gradual rollout on this one, with it being introduced for more sites over the coming months. Once it’s live, you can find the recommendations in the ‘Summary’ section of GSC.
Source: Google Search Central, “Introducing recommendations in Google Search Console”
Judge rules that Google holds a monopoly in online search and advertising
Early this month, a US federal judge ruled that Google violated US antitrust laws by maintaining a monopoly in the online search and advertising markets. The Verge reports that Google rivals like Yelp and DuckDuckGo are not celebrating just yet, per the companies’ comments following the ruling. Both rivals have called for strong legislative remedies as the next step to restoring competition in the search industry.
Source: The Verge, “What Google rivals want after the DOJ’s antitrust trial win”
AI search overviews roll out to six new countries
Following their controversial US launch in May of this year, Google’s ‘AI Overviews’ have now been expanded into six new countries: the United Kingdom, India, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico, and Brazil. Site links are also now displayed at the end of each paragraph, making it easier to locate the exact source of the information provided in the AI overviews.
Source: Google’s ‘The Keyword’ Blog
New Google-CloudVertexBot crawler added to crawler list
Google has added a new crawler, the Google-CloudVertexBot to its list of official Google crawlers. This new crawler crawls websites — at the site owners’ request — to build Vertex AI Agents.
Per Google documentation: “Vertex AI Agent Builder lets developers, even those with limited machine learning skills, tap into the power of Google’s foundation models, search expertise, and conversational AI technologies to create enterprise-grade generative AI applications.”
(Note: Google’s Vertex AI Agent Builder was previously called ‘Vertex AI Search and Conversation’.) identify the new crawler traffic.
Source: Google Search Central -”Latest Documentation Updates”
Google makes improvements to its core updates documentation
This month, Google has restructured its documentation relating to core updates. The updated documentation provides clearer sections, pulls in information from other documents, and reduced duplication with its ‘Helpful Content’ FAQ. The company aims to better help site owners asses traffic and ranking drops and make it easier for them to assess how to improve their websites.
Source: Google Search Central -”Latest Documentation Updates”
Video: SEO Office Hours August 2024
The latest August session of Google Search Central’s “SEO Office Hours” is now available to watch on-demand.
Source: August 2024 SEO Office Hours on YouTube
