Google August 2024 Core Update: What Small Businesses Need to Know

On August 15, 2024, Google began rolling out its latest core algorithm update. By September 3, the rollout was complete. If you noticed changes in your website traffic or rankings over the past few weeks, this update is likely the reason.

Core updates can sound alarming, but for most small businesses that are doing the right things, they are nothing to panic about. This post breaks down what happened, who was affected, what Google is rewarding now, and the specific steps you should take in response.

What Is a Google Core Update?

A few times per year, Google makes significant changes to its overall search algorithm. These are called core updates. Unlike smaller daily tweaks (Google makes thousands of minor algorithm changes every year), core updates can cause noticeable shifts in search rankings across many websites at once.

Core updates are not penalties. They do not target specific sites or specific types of content. Instead, they reassess how Google evaluates content quality and relevance across the entire web. Think of it like this: if Google’s algorithm is the judge in a cooking competition, a core update is like the judge recalibrating their scoring criteria. Some dishes that scored well before might score a little differently now, even though nothing about the dish itself changed.

What Happened with the August 2024 Core Update

This update continued Google’s ongoing push toward rewarding genuinely helpful content and cracking down on content created primarily to manipulate search rankings. Here are the key themes:

Helpful Content Gets a Bigger Boost

Google has been hammering this message for two years now, and the August 2024 update doubled down on it. Websites that create content genuinely designed to help users are being rewarded. Websites that create content primarily to rank in search results (rather than to serve readers) are losing ground.

What does “helpful content” mean in practice? It means content that:

• Answers the question the searcher actually has
• Provides depth, accuracy, and real expertise
• Comes from a source with genuine experience in the topic
• Gives the reader what they need without making them click through five other pages first

E-E-A-T Signals Carry More Weight

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. These are the qualities Google looks for when evaluating whether a piece of content (and the site publishing it) deserves to rank well.

The August 2024 update appears to have increased the importance of E-E-A-T signals, particularly:

• Experience: Does the content creator have first-hand experience with the topic? A plumber writing about how to fix a leaky faucet carries more weight than a content writer who researched it for 20 minutes.
• Trustworthiness: Is the website transparent about who runs it? Does it have clear contact information, an about page, and a real business behind it?

For small businesses, this is actually great news. You have genuine expertise in your field. You have real experience. You are a trustworthy local business with a physical presence. Lean into these strengths.

AI-Generated Content Under Closer Scrutiny

This update continued Google’s effort to identify and demote low-quality AI-generated content. To be clear, Google has not said that AI content is automatically bad. What they are targeting is mass-produced, low-effort content that adds nothing new to the conversation.

If a website published 500 AI-generated blog posts in the past six months, all of them thin rewrites of existing content with no original insight, that site likely took a hit. If a business used AI as a tool to help write thoughtful, expert-reviewed content that genuinely helps readers, that content is fine.

The key distinction is value. Does the content provide something useful that the reader could not easily find elsewhere?

Spam and Manipulation Crackdown

Alongside the core update, Google continued its crackdown on link spam, parasite SEO (where low-quality content rides on high-authority domains), and other manipulative practices. Sites that relied on aggressive link-building schemes, private blog networks, or paid links saw significant ranking drops.

Who Was Affected?

Based on industry data and analysis from the SEO community, here are the types of sites that saw the biggest impacts:

Sites that lost rankings:

• Content farms publishing high volumes of thin, generic articles
• Websites relying heavily on AI-generated content without editorial oversight
• Sites with aggressive, manipulative link-building practices
• Pages that were over-optimized for keywords at the expense of readability
• Websites with poor user experience signals (slow load times, intrusive ads, difficult navigation)

Sites that gained rankings:

• Small and medium businesses with genuine expertise and local authority
• Websites with strong E-E-A-T signals (clear authorship, about pages, credentials)
• Content that demonstrates first-hand experience and original insight
• Sites with clean technical foundations and good user experience

What This Means for Your Small Business

If you are a small business owner who maintains a quality website, publishes helpful content, and serves your customers well online, this update is likely neutral or positive for you. Google’s direction of travel has been consistent for years: reward real businesses with real expertise that create real value for users.

Here is what you should do in response to this update.

Step 1: Check Your Traffic

Log into Google Analytics (or whatever analytics tool you use) and compare your organic traffic from mid-August through September against the previous period. Look for any significant changes, particularly in your most important pages (homepage, service pages, top blog posts).

If your traffic held steady or increased, you are in good shape. Keep doing what you are doing.

If you saw a noticeable drop, do not panic. Read on.

Step 2: Audit Your Content Quality

Go through your most important pages and honestly evaluate them:

• Does this page genuinely help the person who finds it?
• Is the information accurate and up to date?
• Does it demonstrate real expertise and experience?
• Would you be proud to show this page to a customer?

If any pages feel thin, generic, or outdated, those are your improvement targets. Our on-page SEO checklist gives you a step-by-step framework for evaluating and improving every page on your site.

Step 3: Strengthen Your E-E-A-T Signals

This is where small businesses have a natural advantage. Here are concrete ways to strengthen your E-E-A-T:

Experience:

• Write from your own experience. Share real stories, case studies, and examples from your work.
• Include photos from actual projects, not just stock images.
• Mention how long you have been in business and what you have learned.

Expertise:

• Make sure your content reflects the depth of knowledge you actually have.
• Do not water down your expertise to sound more “accessible.” You can be clear and approachable while still being thorough.
• List your credentials, certifications, and training where relevant.

Authoritativeness:

• Build your reputation through local press, community involvement, and industry associations.
• Earn backlinks from reputable local sources (we covered this in detail in our backlink strategy guide).
• Get listed in relevant professional directories.

Trustworthiness:

• Have a clear, complete about page that says who you are and why you do what you do.
• Display your physical address, phone number, and email prominently.
• Include customer reviews and testimonials.
• Make sure your site has an SSL certificate (HTTPS). If your URL starts with “http://” instead of “https://,” fix this immediately.

Step 4: Review Your AI Content Strategy

If you have been using AI tools to generate content for your website, now is a good time to review that content with fresh eyes. Ask yourself:

• Did a human with real expertise review and edit this content?
• Does it contain original insights, examples, or perspectives that AI alone would not produce?
• Would someone reading it learn something genuinely useful?

If the answer to any of those questions is no, consider rewriting or removing that content. A smaller number of high-quality pages is better than a large number of mediocre ones.

Step 5: Focus on User Experience

Google is increasingly tying rankings to the actual experience visitors have on your site. This means:

• Fast load times (aim for under 3 seconds)
• Mobile-friendly design that works smoothly on phones
• Easy navigation that helps people find what they need
• No intrusive pop-ups or aggressive ads
• Clear calls to action that help visitors take the next step

These are not just SEO factors. They are basic good business practices that also happen to help your rankings.

What NOT to Do After a Core Update

Just as important as what to do is what to avoid:

Do not make drastic changes immediately. Rankings can fluctuate for several weeks after a core update settles. Give it 2-4 weeks before drawing conclusions about what changed and why.

Do not delete a bunch of content in a panic. If pages lost rankings, the answer is usually to improve them, not remove them. Deleting content can cause other problems.

Do not chase shortcuts. Every core update makes shortcuts less effective. The businesses that thrive long-term are the ones that build genuine authority, not the ones that find clever workarounds.

Do not ignore it completely. While you should not panic, you should pay attention. Core updates are Google telling you what it values. Listen.

The Bigger Picture

If you zoom out, Google’s core updates over the past two years tell a very clear story. Google wants to surface content from real people and real businesses with real expertise. It wants to push down content that exists only to game the algorithm.

For small business owners, this is the best possible trajectory. You are the real deal. You have genuine expertise. You serve real customers in real communities. The more Google’s algorithm rewards authenticity and quality, the better positioned you are.

The businesses that will struggle are the ones trying to fake authority, mass-produce thin content, or buy their way to the top of search results. The businesses that will win are the ones building a quality website, serving their customers well, and sharing their genuine knowledge.

Need Help Navigating This Update?

If you saw a traffic drop after the August 2024 core update and are not sure what to do about it, we can help. We will audit your site, identify exactly what is holding you back, and build a plan to recover and grow.

Check out our SEO services or get in touch to start the conversation. Core updates come and go, but a solid SEO foundation carries you through all of them.