Google released its latest core update yesterday, November 11, 2024, saying it will take two weeks to roll out.
The latest broad core algorithm update is the final update for 2024 and is a continuation of the tech giant’s search results refinements and could affect search rankings.
Google`s announcement
We have been expecting the latest update for some weeks, and now it’s finally in play; Google made its announcement on X and LinkedIn, where it said the update is a continuation of its work to improve its search results and provide content people find helpful rather than content that exists only for ranking purposes.
Google announcement on X:
- “Today, we released the November 2024 core update. We’ll add it to our ranking release history page in the near future and update when the rollout is complete.”
On LinkedIn, Google said:
What To Expect?
Google said the update was coming two weeks ago at its web creator event, where it told site owners affected by the September 2023 Helpful Content Update that the latest update would not help with ranking recoveries.
Google’s last core update was in August, which also had little effect on improving lost ranking. Although Google said to expect the November update to be the same, it’s too early to know what impact it might have.
What action to take
Google rolls out several core updates annually and announces them because they can significantly affect its search algorithms, adversely affecting a site’s position in Search.
Google says on its Search Central page that most sites do not need to worry about its core updates, and many will see no effect; however, Google provides the following advice to sites that experience a drop in their rankings:
- Wait one week after the core update completion before analyzing any impact.
- Compare how your top pages were ranking before and after the core update.
- Consider changes to pages that experience a significant drop in ranking position (4 to 29 places).
- Avoid making quick fixes and instead focus on sustainable improvements that serve your users, like rewriting content to make it easier to read and navigate.
- Use Google’s site analysis tool to see where your site has been affected.
The takeaway
Since the 2023 Helpful Content Update, Google has been telling publishers to focus on creating valuable content for their readers, and there’s no reason to think anything has changed.
Google reaffirmed this when it recently said:
- “There’s nothing new or special that creators need to do for this update as long as they’ve been making satisfying content meant for people. For those that might not be ranking as well, we strongly encourage reading our creating helpful, reliable, people-first content help page,” Google said previously.
The takeaway is to continue creating concise, useful, and relevant content for your users and remain hopeful that Google likes it.
