Google released the highly anticipated August 2024 core update on Thursday morning. Within less than 24 hours, Google Search confirmed a ranking bug that is still affecting results.

This indicates that Google Search is currently unstable. Many SEO professionals and publishers have been noting various observations since the rollout of the August core update began.

Important Notes: It’s crucial to recognize the following factors that could influence your Google organic search traffic:

• A ranking bug is affecting Google Search.
• The core update will take a month to fully roll out.
• AI Overviews have expanded, added more links, and now appear for signed-out users.

Observations So Far: Generally, most people are noticing no significant changes. This is typical.

However, for the first time, we’re observing some activity from sites that were adversely affected by the September 2023 helpful content update.

To clarify: These sites haven’t "recovered" and remain far from their pre-September 2023 helpful content update levels. Nevertheless, some are experiencing rises in Google Search rankings and visibility.

• Some sites impacted by the helpful content update are registering slight increases in visibility in Google Search.
• No one considers these increases as full recoveries just yet.
• Sites affected by earlier core updates, such as the March 2024 core update, are also witnessing changes—some positive and others negative.
• Some sites that weren’t impacted by any core update are also seeing shifts in their rankings—both positive and negative.

I documented extensive discussions within the SEO community on Search Engine Roundtable.

Glenn Gabe, an SEO consultant, has been monitoring several hundred sites negatively influenced by the helpful content update. Gabe mentioned that 47 of those sites are showing minor signs of improvement—some are experiencing noticeable boosts in visibility:

• “I’m now observing more HCU(X) sites gaining traction. Out of the 380 sites I’m tracking, 47 have shown growth since the August core update started rolling out. Keep in mind, some have low visibility, but they’ve spiked with the update. Others with higher visibility are rebounding well.”

House Fresh and Retro Dodo: These two sites garnered significant media attention due to their Google ranking problems. Both reported fluctuations—not complete recoveries—in the past few days. Below are their respective posts:

Hey! Sorry, this update caught me while on vacation ?

We are getting visitors to some of our previous top traffic pages. Here's a comparison between yesterday and 28 days ago: pic.twitter.com/38PBMTZYnR

— Gisele Navarro (@ichbinGisele) August 17, 2024

I can confirm there are numerous fluctuations happening. I’m unsure what this signifies yet, but I’m hopeful. Reddit continues to dominate everything.

— Brandon Saltalamacchia (@iambrandonsalt) August 16, 2024

Why It Matters: With only a few days into the month-long rollout of the August core update and a ranking bug persisting, it’s challenging to predict if site traffic will consistently improve or worsen in the coming days. While traffic might continue to rise, it could also decline further.

At this stage, we cannot determine the direction this update is heading. However, we will keep monitoring developments and provide updates accordingly. We wish everyone success and progress with this Google algorithm update.

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