Google updates August 2023 - wondering how they will affect your content marketing? Grab yourself a cup of coffee, and let’s dive in.
Summary
There will be winners and losers with this month’s rollout. I’ll cover what we know so far about how video emphasis, schema visibility and “learn as you search” affects your current content and future strategy.
As always, this information is brought to you from a professional perspective as a freelance content writer. You can check out my blog writing services here.
Which Google updates affect content marketing on your website?
Will creating video content benefit my reach?
Does the schema update affect website traffic?
So, will SGE updates present problems for future website traffic?
Is a drop in traffic a bad thing?
Suggestions from a content writer that’ll lift your content strategy
Which Google updates affect content marketing on your website?
Google has been quite busy this year with a number of updates to their algorithm and beta testing their search generative experience (SGE). It looks like August won’t be any slower, and as such, volatility in traffic is going to be high, according to Barry Schwartz of SEO Roundtable. Understandable, you would think, with so many changes coming from the Google suite, but what effect can we expect from a content marketing perspective?
Let’s take a look, specifically in relation to those updates that affect your website content and talk you through what I feel are the biggest considerations for strategy adjustment.
Video emphasised in AI-generated answers
Screenshot showing you where and how video will show in SGE (original image posted on Search Engine Land)
Google is adding more videos to SGE roll-outs, which is a visibility opportunity (especially if you use YouTube). Essentially users will have more access to the consumption formats that suit user intent or are potentially learned through user interactions. In other words, the AI model will serve video to a user more often if they consume it regularly, where it is served as a SERP response.
That raises the question - Are you turning your blogs into videos or adding video content to your blogs? And should you be?
FAQ and How to schema markup visibility has gone for mobile
Google's visual explanation of FAQ and How to Schema changes
Schema markup is a code in the form of structured data that tells search engines the meaning or purpose of your page or elements and how users should see it in the search results. In Google’s case, you could add code to your pages or on pages to help Google pick up more information and show this off as menu options for a page in SERP.
It used to be that schema could help us get more visibility for sections of content for this type of web page (just like domain menus do) - not anymore, at least on mobile. That means we need to remove it and rework these content pieces.
That means a quick site audit and revamping templates to use those pages to create something more valuable.
Will schema visibility disappear for desktop too? Most likely, but that will come in a future update.
The "learn as you search" feature replaces your FAQ/How to schema with Google’s in-app scrapes
What is the “learn as you search” feature? The aim is to allow users to understand internet content as they surf through SERP options. A pop-up can be enabled by clicking through to a new page on Google Chrome, helping you understand what you are looking at and offering you increased research options. Part of that will be offering content from other sites to help fulfil the user’s search intent.
It will be like when e-commerce platforms (eBay, Etsy, et al.) added “you might also like” to product pages. The fallout was that your competitors got visibility directly on your listings; this will now happen on-site from Chrome visits via a Google overlay if a user scrolls to “relates searches”.
This is the look of that overlay on mobile
Google’s learn as you search example
Here is a video by SEO expert Lily Ray showing you the desktop version. I recommend you watch it to see how the user experience works. I think it’s a great user move but one that content marketers will have to adapt their strategies to.
Will there be copyright questions on profiting from our content? Perhaps if ads are shown in these results but it’s still in beta, the design and functionality aren’t fully decided.
Will creating video content benefit my reach?
Yes, potentially, if done well.
YouTube is its own search engine these days, so having a presence there isn’t a bad strategy. Because it’s Google-owned, video SERPs will likely be Google Ads or YouTube first - there’s a financial interest there for Google to do that.
The difficulty is in how you add more videos to your marketing campaigns without breaking the budget.
Does the schema update affect website traffic?
Potentially!
I hear chatter from some of my SEO peers suggesting visibility has already impacted traffic to schema-related pages. Google doesn’t mess around when they say they are dropping visibility from searches. When it’s gone, it’s simply gone!
Yet, in contrast to that, on some pages, traffic has doubled, even though visibility has gone according to other sources.
And others aren’t seeing the schema disappearing at all.
This update is in the early stages, so there will be updates later on that add to the August roll-out.
So, will SGE updates present problems for future website traffic?
I’m assuming at some point, as SGE rolls out, we will all see a drop in traffic, particularly if it takes off with users. That's because users will stay in the Google app longer and not necessarily click through to visit our site as part of their search. In this case, it might not be a metric worth getting stressed about during tracking except in relation to conversion calculations.
One thing we do need to consider is where our exiting traffic goes next. If we look at competitors specifically, this means using something like SEMRush to see how their pages perform in rankings and traffic - there might be keyword gaps to plug. That’ll mean a more in-depth yearly content audit (insert headaches here!).
It also means monitoring SGE SERPs if you have the capacity.
On the other hand, if you have a great piece of original and helpful content, you could see your traffic skyrocket as a result of SGE roll-outs. Why? Because SGE will share its most favoured content directly in its results. Land position 1 here, and you could be on to a good thing.
My advice is don’t go cheap on your content investment - pay for professional writers, and don’t scale creation with AI scrapes.
Remember, SGE will take up most of the screen on a mobile view and the top third on desktop SERPs. Getting into the chosen few could have a beneficial impact on your site traffic.
Is a drop in traffic a bad thing?
Not necessarily.
It’s a bit like Elon Musk’s changes over on X, nee Twitter. Some users found that although people left the platform, affecting their follower and subscriber levels, those who remained were much more loyal and engaged.
I believe this could be true of our traffic.
Maybe we should view it as a cleansing of our data.
There is a possibility that where and when people land, SGE may have helped nurture their decision to invest in what they consume on our websites. That could translate to higher GA4 event counts (which we discussed in our KPI tracking post here) and better conversion rates.
Suggestions from a content writer that’ll lift your content strategy
Ok, so at this point, we don’t have a magic wand. There simply isn’t enough data to predict where SGE changes will land. Google is still in beta testing, so many of these changes are in their infancy, meaning more edits are yet to come.
As they refine their systems and their AI, there is an opportunity to make some adaptions to our own strategies. And by doing this in a considered way, we can start to really live up to Google’s idea of a better user experience through helpful content.
Adding in video
Video isn’t a new suggestion, but it’s certainly worth entertaining as traditional and SGE searches emphasise video answers. We know this format particularly works on mobile.
Capacity and budget will always limit your expansion plans, but you can already cover a wealth of topics within your existing content.
It’s all about repurposing wisely, with viewer engagement in mind.
Here’s a guide on using your YouTube content in your blog posts so you know what to do once your content is produced.
Auditing and updating FAQ and How to pages
Once you’ve dropped your schema code, these pages are still highly valuable to your user. They are information goldmines that cut customer support tickets and assist in buying decisions. As such, we have an opportunity to make them more valuable.
Video is certainly something to consider, as are updates for fresh keywords and information to expand your reach.
Reformatting blog posts and sales/service page templates
More than ever, it will be important to get to the point quickly on each web page. Adjusting your templates allows your content writer or copywriter to work on copy that helps conversions and elicits engagement. It can also help your developers to set up your site for quick format options across existing content, making updates go quicker.
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