Recovery uncertain: Google’s Danny Sullivan on algorithm impacts

Publishers impacted by recent Google algorithm updates might never fully recover to previous traffic levels. That’s one thing that stood out to me in a newly published interview with Google Search Liasion Danny Sullivan, conducted by Barry Schwartz.

Ranking improvements possible? Schwartz pointed out examples of websites impacted by recent Google algorithm updates to Sullivan. Google will continue to try to reward good content and Sullivan said Google’s systems could be improved in some areas

• “I think the changes have helped some of those sites but generally have not brought those sites all the way back up to the level they were back to, say, last September or so.”
• “I do think that some of those sites will continue to see good gains if they’re good sites, producing good content for people. I hope that they continue to go that way.”
• “I wish we could do a better job by those sites as well like that, that these, these are really good things in our systems need to improve.” 

No promises on recovery. Sullivan made it clear that publishers shouldn’t go up if they aren’t being rewarded in Google Search. But he also seemed to indicate that there is no going back – and current traffic levels may be the new normal for some websites.

Here are some of Sullivan’s quotes:

• “But you can’t predict that every site will recover to exactly where they were in September because September doesn’t exist anymore. And our ranking systems are different, and among other things, our ranking systems are also rewarding other kind of content too, including forum content and social content, because that’s an important part of providing a good set of diverse results.”
• “No one who is creating really good content, who doesn’t feel that they were well rewarded in this last update should think well, that’s it. Because our goal is if you’re doing good content, we wanted you to be successful. And if we haven’t been rewarding you as well as we should, that’s part of what we hope this last update would do better on. We want the future update to continue down that path.”

August 2024 core update. Many content creators haven’t been shy about sharing their anger at Google, especially following the September 2023 helpful content update. When Google launched the August 2024 core update, Google Search Advocate John Mueller seemed to indirectly address this and indicated that Google wants to reward smaller and independent websites:

• “This latest update takes into account the feedback we’ve heard from some creators and others over the past few months. As always, we aim to connect people with a range of high quality sites, including small or independent sites that are creating useful, original content, when relevant to users’ searches. This is an area we’ll continue to address in future updates. This update also aims to better capture improvements that sites may have made, so we can continue to show the best of the web.”

Did that happen? As Schwartz reported in Google August 2024 core update rollout is now complete:

• Most sites did not see significant or meaningful recoveries, from what we can tell. And even more sites saw even more declines or just stayed the same.

How much feedback did Google get? We learned from Schwartz’s interview with Sullivan that Google received 12,000 individual submissions with 1,300 unique domains. Google is still going through this feedback.

Why we care. Google Search is not perfect or “fair.” It never has been. While it’s easy to blame Google for getting it wrong, it’s also important to take a critical honest look at your own website to figure out why you’ve lost visibility and traffic.

SEO is more complex than ever – and getting increasingly so. Hopefully, if you were impacted, you will continue to fight on and rebuild your authority. Some suggested reading if this is you: The two parts of E-E-A-T Google hasn’t told you about.

The interview. You can read Schwartz’s full interview with Sullivan on Search Engine Roundtable.

Disclosure: You can learn more about Danny Sullivan’s business relationship with Third Door Media, Search Engine Land’s parent company, here and here.