The Google Core Update November 2024 has introduced major changes to content quality, user experience (UX), and technical SEO. This update builds upon Google’s March 2024 update, with an even stronger focus on mobile-friendliness, page speed, and aligning content with user intent. Understanding these updates is critical to maintaining or improving your website’s search rankings.
The most affected industries with Google core update November 2024 are:
- Healthcare
- Finance
- Technology
- E-commerce
- News and Media
I. Content Quality and Relevance
1. Increased Emphasis on High-Quality, Original Content
- Originality is Key: Google now prioritizes unique, well-researched content that delivers value to users.
- Avoid Duplicate or Thin Content: Low-value content risks being penalized.
- Authority Matters: Comprehensive articles from credible, authoritative sources are rewarded.
- Quality Over Quantity: Focus on creating fewer but more impactful content pieces.
2. The Need for Content to Align More Closely with User Intent
- Target Specific Intent: Address informational, transactional, or navigational queries directly.
- Use Long-Tail Keywords: These help align content with nuanced user searches.
- Deliver In-Depth Insights: Surface-level content is less likely to rank well.
3. Impact on Sites
Low-quality content can result in:
- Ranking drops for low-quality content.
- Outdated content penalized
- Irrelevant content gets demoted.
- Decreased user engagement
- Loss of credibility and authority
- Struggles to compete with updated content
- Increased bounce rates due to poor content
- Reduced organic traffic from lower rankings
II. User Experience (UX)
1. Page Speed
The November 2024 Google core update discusses the speed at which your page loads.
If your page could be faster, people are likely to leave the site as quickly as possible, which may worsen your rankings.
Websites with speedier loading give users a great experience, and now Google favors these sites, too. Increasing your website’s speed can improve user happiness and search engine rankings
2. Mobile-Friendliness
However, Google has shifted to mobile-first indexation, so a website must function on mobile.
Websites optimized for a mobile experience will rank lower because they offer a poor user experience to mobile users.
This is possible because if your website is friendly to mobile users, more of them will dwell on it longer than outsiders. Ensuring the website appears and performs regularly in mobile browsers is essential.
III. E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthines
E-E-A-T is critical for Your Money, Your Life (YMYL) sectors, including health and finance. Content must demonstrate expertise, authority, and trustworthiness to rank well.
1. Author Expertise Evaluation
Google assesses the author’s qualifications and experience to rank the content.
If the author is knowledgeable in their field, their content will be higher ranked so that users can find accurate and reliable information.
Demonstrating expertise is essential to building trust with both users and Google.
2. Experience-Based Content
With E-E-A-T, what matters most is content that shares personal experiences and life experiences.
Google likes this better regarding sensitive information, as it feels more trustworthy and relatable to users.
Key Factors Contributing to Higher E-E-A-T Scores
- Author Credentials and Expertise: Besides experience in creating content, confirmation qualifications enhance perceived authority and trust in content.
- Content Credibility: Information that is factually accurate, well-researched, and current earns trust.
- Website Trust Signals: Secure HTTPS protocols, clear privacy policies, and positive reviews instill confidence in users.
- Authoritativeness by Citations: Citing authoritative sources and linking to them helps increase the credibility of one’s content.
- Transparency and Accountability: Author bios, editorial policies, and contact information build trust.
How to Improve E-E-A-T to Rank Higher?
- Provide informative author bios that mention credentials, qualifications, and professional achievements.
- Mention credible sources and research, and update older content regularly.
- Place clear policies related to privacy terms of service, and make your contact page easy to locate for trust.
- Make use of HTTPS protocols that will help protect data and gain trust.
- Gain references and links from other reputable, high-ranking websites to increase your site’s authority.
- Display feedback from satisfied users or clients that helps to boost credibility and trust.
How to Respond to Ranking Changes Post Google Core Update November 2024?
A significant feature of the November 2024 update was the focus on the quality and suitability of the content.
Websites with extensive original, research-intensive content corresponding to the user’s intent are ranked. This shift indicates that business entities must offer real value in the content to be competitive.
- Audit content quality and user experience.
- Optimize site speed and mobile performance.
- Monitor competitors and adapt strategies.
Technical SEO Enhancements
- Site Speed: Fast-loading pages reduce bounce rates and improve rankings.
- Crawlability: Ensure Google can index all important pages.
- Structured Data: Use schema markup to help Google understand your content better.
Final Note
The November 2024 Google Core Update is centered around content quality, user experience flows, and good technical SEO.
Your rankings are determined by increasing page speed, the website’s mobile-friendliness, and relevance.
Remember another concern: being an experienced expert, authoritative, trustworthy, and obtaining “real” backlinks to your site will increase your credibility.
Maintaining suitable tools and techniques will support websites’ further success in the new age of SEO. These changes require businesses to respond to them to sustain their good search engine rankings.
FAQs
The Google Core Update of November 2024 is an algorithm change designed to improve the accuracy and relevance of search results. It emphasizes rewarding websites with high-quality, relevant content and penalizing sites with poor user experience, outdated information, and low-quality backlinks.
Websites that follow best SEO practices, such as improving content quality, optimizing for mobile, and improving site speed, will likely benefit from positive rankings effects. On the other hand, sites with low-quality or irrelevant content may rank lower. The key to improving rankings is updating content regularly and emphasizing E-E-A-T.
Google has focused even more on high-quality, unique content that matches users’users’ intent. The search engine rewards websites with authoritative, helpful, up-to-date information, while websites containing thin, irrelevant, or low-value outdated content might see ranking declines.
With a continued focus on mobile-first indexing, mobile-friendliness remains a key ranking factor. Websites not optimized for mobile will begin to see their rankings dwindle as Google starts favoring those providing smooth mobile experiences.
Backlinks from authoritative sources remain one of the most important ranking factors. The core update has again reminded you of the importance of getting high-quality, relevant backlinks and avoiding toxic links that will harm your site’s credibility and rankings.
Improving E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) involves:
- Publishing authoritative and well-researched content.
- Highlighting expert authors.
- Ensuring your website is trustworthy and accurate.
- Building up credibility with backlinks from good sources can also improve a site’s E-E-A-T score.
Whereas the Core Update Google 2023 focused on improving search results by concentrating on authoritative and trustworthy content and emphasizing E-A-T, the Core Update Google 2024 goes further by removing low-quality content and penalizing sites that use spammy SEO tactics, including the overuse of AI-generated content. Both updates prioritize quality content, but 2024 enforces stricter penalties.
