Google’s August 1st Core Algorithm Update Fully Rolled Out

Google’s algorithm updates are quite literally never-ending and here we go again. Google has now finished rolling out another core algorithm update.

This update was released on August 1st 2018 – though it only felt like last week when the last core update was released.

This time the emphasis appears to be on health, medical and Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) websites. However, Google has stated that the core algorithm may affect sites across all industries.

Some will have seen a negative impact while others will have seen more positive changes.

This week we released a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. Our guidance about such updates remains the same as in March, as we covered here: https://t.co/uPlEdSLHoX

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) August 1, 2018

What are Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) Pages?

Google’s Page Quality Rating Guidelines states:

Some types of pages could potentially impact the future happiness, health, financial stability, or safety of users. We call such pages “Your Money or Your Life” pages, or YMYL.

It goes on to provide a few examples of YMYL pages:

• Shopping or financial transaction pages – Pages that allow a user to make an online transaction. (Online stores and banking pages)
• Financial information pages – Pages providing advice or information on taxes, insurance etc.
• Medical information pages – Pages providing advice or information on health, medical conditions, drugs etc.
• Legal information pages – Pages providing advice or information on divorce, child custody etc.
• News articles or public/official information pages – Pages that include information about government processes and programs, policies, people and laws amongst others. News about important topics such as international event, politics, technology, science etc.

If you would like some light bedtime reading then feel free to read Google’s Page Quality Rating Guidelines.

So What Next?

Don’t panic, Google releases several core algorithm updates throughout the year along with other smaller updates each day to improve search results.

These core algorithm updates are intended to give visibility to websites that Google believes have been under-rewarded before.

Google SearchLiaison States:

As with any update, some sites may note drops or gains. There’s nothing wrong with pages that may now perform less well. Instead, it’s that changes to our systems are benefiting pages that were previously under-rewarded…

Google, as always, states there’s not much you can do if your website has been affected negatively by core updates and that website owners should continue to make improvements across their sites that will improve the overall user experience.

Hopefully by the time the next core algorithm update comes around your site will be recognised for the hard work that you’ve been doing.