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Did Google’s August 1 update affect your local rankings?

Kristof Maret

On August 1, 2018, Google published a major update to its algorithm whose impact on local and organic rankings is not anecdotal.

One of the functions of the update was to demote advice pages that are questionable for expertise, authority, and reliability (E-A-F).

The websites and pages of YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) seem to have received “special attention”.

As you may have noticed, whether by reading the SEO news or by “monitoring” your sites,the August 1st update was applied on a large basis in the manner of the March and April updates, in order to break with the spirit of updates with animal names, Possum, Pigeon, Panda, Penguin, etc.

 

Content of the press release

This week, we released a vast update to the core algorithm, as we do several times a year. Our forecast for these updates remains the same as in March, as we have seen here : https://twitter.com/searchliaison/status/973241540486164480….

then

Every day, Google publishes one or more changes to improve our results. Some are focused on specific improvements. Some are big modifications. Last week, we released a comprehensive update to the core algorithm. We do them regularly several times a year……..

As usual, Google refrained from providing any kind of context or goals the update was looking for, and referred readers to its reference and advice guides provided on Twitter in March, which can be summarized as follows:

Site owners should continue to focus on “publishing remarkable content.”

Image translation

As with any update, some sites may note decreases or gains in positions. Pages that perform poorly are not necessarily punished. Our changes tend to benefit pages that were previously under-rewarded…….

then

There is no “fix” to apply for pages that have lost performance, other than to stay focused on creating quality content. Over time, your content may move up the rankings.

As a content creator, I can tell you that these tips are as vague as they can be, especially since there is no standard definition of “great content” and what works in one topic can be entirely different from what works in another.

While we wait to see the effects of each update on our clients’ rankings, we also rely on the community of SEO experts to help fill in the gaps left by Google.

I am bringing together here some of the analyses and case studies presented by some of my American colleagues.

What do local SEO experts say about Google’s latest algorithm update?

Although initially the SEO community wasn’t sure if the update affected the ranking of local packs, Joy Hawkins of Sterling Sky was quick to provide evidence of the changes in these specific rankings:

Translation:

Joy Hawkins@JoyanneHawkins

Verification of a site that has suffered a decline in positions following the latest update of the Google algorithm. Look at the fall that occurred on July 31st (not August 1st), the positions are impacted both on the local results and the natural positions And we are only in the first days of the application of this update; wait until Google has crawled the planet…

This update is still in its early stages, and there’s no doubt more data will be released, but anyone operating websites with multiple geolocations should check to see if this affects one or two of their local web presences:

Later, Marie Haynes and others demonstrated that the update had a particularly negative impact on YMYL’s websites, with a particular focus on E-A-T (more on that in a moment):

Translation:

@MarieHaynes

There are massive changes in the SERPS for dietary and nutrition sites. It seems that the EAT has become even more important.

Abby Hamilton@abbynhamilton

Articles on food are now overtaken by the websites of official medical organizations with more E.A.T. — interesting note for the health theme

Before we get into the types of sites we see negatively affected, I just want to recommend reading Marie Haynes’ excellent article on the update, and encourage you to get involved in the conversation via the comments on this article (open 2 weeks).

After all, it’s only by working together that our SEO community can really dig into how the algorithm evolves, and allow us to adjust our strategies over time.

What is E-A-T in SEO?

E-A-T stands for Expertise, authoritativeness, Trustworthness and this qualifying acronym takes an important place in Google’s guidelines for the quality of search results. https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en//insidesearch/howsearchworks/assets/searchqualityevaluatorguidelines.pdf,

https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/fr//insidesearch/howsearchworks/assets/searchqualityevaluatorguidelines.pdf

Suppose you don’t have time to read the 164-page PDF that’s behind this URL… I’ll summarize them for you here.

Making “expertise, authority, and trustworthiness” important factors in page quality is what Google is all about to avoid negatively impacting people’s lives.

By not valuing sites that offer questionable advice from unauthorized or lower-level sources, Google reduces the risk of people getting scammed or, in more extreme cases, taking risks with their physical and mental health (outright!).

For example, as Google states in its guidelines, when it comes to medical sites:

“E-A-T medical advice must be written or produced by individuals or organizations with the appropriate medical expertise or accreditation. E-A-T medical advice or information should be written or produced in a professional style and should be reviewed and updated regularly.”

This approach extends

Qualifying the “expertise, authority, and trustworthiness” of a website or content creator, without conducting extensive research on the authors’ experience or qualifications, is highly subjective, so it is assumed that Googlers have their own ways to assess these factors fairly quickly for millions of websites.

Translation

Local companies that tend to exaggerate their expertise may need to reconsider this approach.

In this update, it would appear that low E-A-T websites are the hardest hit, so if you’re working with a local business that tends to exaggerate its expertise in its site’s content, take a close look at its stances and assess whether it’s time to find another way to showcase the site and the business.

What is a YMYL website?

Another term that comes up more often since Google’s core algorithm update in August is YMYL, which stands for ” Your money or your life .” Your money or life

What Google calls YMYL websites are closely related to E-A-T, as they include pages that “could potentially impact users’ happiness, health, financial stability, or safety.”

YMYL is not a quality statement; rather, it’s a category of pages or websites that have the potential to significantly affect someone’s life, for better or worse.

These include the following (by Google):

I encourage you to take a look at page 9 of the Google Search Quality Guidelines for more details on this.

Conclusion

If we are to believe what we see from the community, this latest algorithm update seems to be focused on downgrading YMYL pages to low E-A-T.

While this will certainly impact websites like forums with low-quality advice, it’s worth noting that local businesses are just as at risk (as Joy and Marie showed above) of providing advice that doesn’t come from a place of expertise, authority, and trust.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on that.

Have you seen your website, customers, or business rankings lose positions in the latest update? Which pages in particular were affected? As I mentioned above, the more we share our results as a community, the faster we can make adjustments that will restore or improve our customers’ rankings and traffic, let me know what you found in the comments below!

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