Join hosts Ross Dunn and Scott Van Achte as they dissect Google’s August algorithm update, unraveling traffic fluctuations and analytics intricacies. Explore the reasons behind vanishing gains and drops, including bugs, update phases, and data misinterpretation. Learn about Google Discover’s manual actions, content penalties, and the impact of noindex and nofollow tags on site performance.

  • Google August Core Update gains are vanishing for some.

    • Reasons for the drops could be due to a ranking bug, a new phase of the update, an unrelated update, or misinterpretation of data.
    • Hold steady during updates, avoid drawing conclusions too early, and refrain from making immediate site updates.
  • Google Discover issues manual actions for policy violations; high-quality, timely content and images are crucial for visibility.
    • Misleading content is not allowed; penalties may include removal from Discover.
    • Penalties in Discover won’t affect organic search results.
    • Google Search may use OG title for title links.
    • Nine sources for title links, including Open Graph tags, are now considered.
  • Google and YouTube content duplication isn’t flagged as duplicate content.
    • Noindex and nofollow tags do not indicate low-quality content to Google, according to Martin Splitt.
    • Having many noindex or nofollow pages may not signal low-quality to Google.
    • Presence of noindex or nofollow tags could have valid reasons.
  • A loss in traffic may not signify poor performance; search volume decline and removed content could be reasons.
  • Investigate traffic decline despite good rankings by comparing keyword rankings and volume changes.

Sources:

WordPress Elementor Widgets Add-On Vulnerability – XSS vulnerability in “Jeg Elementor Kit,” an add-on plugin for Elementor, affecting over 200,000 WordPress Installations. Rated as a medium-level threat at 6.4/10.
WordPress Translation Plugin Vulnerability Affects +1 Million Sites – Remote code execution vulnerability in “WPML,” a WordPress Translation Plugin, impacting over 1 million websites. Rated as a high-level threat at 9.9/10.
Google August Core Update Analysis – Unveil insights on vanishing gains post Google’s August core update, listing possible reasons like ranking bugs and misinterpretation of data.
Google Discover Manual Action Insights – Explore Google Discover policy violations and penalties, focusing on high-quality content and image requirements for visibility.
Google Search Utilizes OG Title for Links – Understand Google’s use of OG titles in search results, joining the list of sources for title links.
Google’s Perspective on Content Duplication  – Gain insights on content duplication between Google Search and YouTube, emphasizing unique content preferences for different users.
Google Clarifies Noindex and Nofollow Tag Impact – Learn from Martin Splitt on how Google interprets noindex and nofollow tags, dispelling myths about signaling low-quality content.