Google's August, 2021 Algorithm Changed Local Business SEO

  • August 1st, 2021: Google release a large algorithm update that has impacted organic and local rankings
  • One core change in the update has been to demote the ranking of pages that provide advice if they have questionable or low E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)
  • Many of the impacted pages are known as YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) pages. These are pages that offer health or financial advice or offerings

On August 1st, 2021- Google released an update which they referred to as a "broad core algorithm" update without going into any contextual or functional explanations of the update (per usual, for Google). Because of the uproar that "major updates" like Penguin, Panda, Hummingbird, etc. have caused through the SEO and content communities, it's likely that Google carefully crafted the wording of "broad core algorithm update" to avoid similar pushback as they have experienced in the past.

Similar to an attorney protecting a client, Google has referred back to their statements in March where they stated that 'site owners should continue to focus on building great content.' Thanks, Google- for outlining what you perceive to be 'great content' in your vague, but attorney-friendly, statement. 

According to Google SearchLiaison on Twitter:

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 SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) March 12, 2021

The Bottom Line

It would appear at first glance of our research that this algorithm update primarily targeted pages with low E-A-T. While this might seem like it doesn't apply to you at first glance, we would encourage you and your business to be weary of providing advice that you are not an expert in to avoid penalization to both your local and organic SEO rankings.

If you have questions about how to boost your ranking for your business in either Local or Organic SEO searches, please don't hesitate contact us directly.