Google’s March 2024 core update has brought a revolution in the SEO and content marketing field, that no one had anticipated. The best part about this radical update is that its consequences will change Google’s search results significantly. As per Google’s evaluations, this update along with their earlier ones is going to bring down the poor-quality and unauthentic content in search results by at least 40%.
Chris Nelson from Google’s search quality team said that the March 2024 core update is a lot more sophisticated than the usual core updates. This clearly means that this update’s repercussions will be far-fetched and continue in the future as well.
Let’s dive in fully to learn about Google’s March 2024 core update and understand how it will change SEO’s future. The practical takeaways at the end will give you an insightful course of action to benefit immensely from this update. So, let’s begin!
What is Google’s March 2024 update about?
The core update of March 2024 is all about fighting against online spammers who use different approaches to manipulate Google search results. The major part of this spam includes creating inferior-quality content with the help of AI LLM tools like ChatGPT. When this update is rolled out and implemented completely, the users will find only the high-quality content which is useful to them.
The update is resulting in many websites getting deindexed and penalties given right, left, and centre. Even the websites that have survived the earlier updates are also worried this time due to the nature of this update.
Why is Google’s March 2024 update the biggest one?
The March 2024 core update is the biggest one in recent times because it has taken on a direct fight with AI and unhelpful content. Google users have made what this search engine is today in terms of market capitalization, revenue, and impact. Now, Google is implementing its core principle of being user-friendly and providing the most helpful content which is highly relevant to the users.
Google began optimizing their ranking systems in 2022 to reduce unoriginal and irrelevant content in the search results. The March 2024 update is the practical implementation of the learnings of the past 2 years.
Due to this update, Google’s core ranking factors will change for the better. This will help the web crawlers identify whether a webpage’s content is unhelpful, has a substandard user experience, or is made for search engines. Moreover, it will punish those websites which were made specifically to satisfy particular search queries and had plenty of subpar content.
What have been the changes so far to Google’s Algorithm in 2024?
The major changes to Google’s algorithm are as follows:-
- Upgraded Quality Ranking:
The search algorithm of Google’s core ranking systems is being improved constantly. It is being done so that only the helpful content finds a place in the search engine results pages(SERPs). As a result, the paraphrased, poorly researched or plagiarized content’s percentage will decrease in the SERP. Due to this, great-quality websites with helpful content will get a lot more traffic.
- Revised Spam Protocols
Google is updating its spam policies so that low-grade content doesn’t show up in the search results. For example, expired domains are being used by people and repurposed as spammy websites. These websites are then used to spam the visiting people with inappropriate messages. The core update will severely penalize these websites and probably deindex them as well.
What major updates are given by Google in the March 2024 core update?
The three major website abuses dealt with in this update by Google are written below:-
- Scaled content abuse
After the popularity of LLM platforms like ChatGPT, many people started producing below-standard content with its help. By creating such content at scale, a lot of over-smart individuals tried to exploit the SEO rankings. The update targets those websites that are producing a huge amount of content(web pages, blog posts, or guest posts) with these AI tools.
However, the lines are pretty blurred for a content piece written by a human or with AI tools. To understand the difference between the two, Google is updating its policy to identify which content is human-generated and which one is AI-generated. Furthermore, the algorithm has advanced to a great degree that it will find out whether the content is written by combining the AI-generated output and rewriting by a human.
This analysis will allow Google to take action on those websites that are providing minimal value with their huge volume of content. For example, web pages promise to answer popular queries but don’t help the end users with their published content.
- Site reputation abuse
Do you know about some websites that have great-quality content but also host mediocre content provided by third-party websites? If yes, you must have experienced how you were misled by these websites once you read their substandard content.
Google’s algorithm will now consider inferior-grade, third-party content hosted on such websites as spam. As a result, those websites will be hit hard and might even get deindexed.
- Expired domain abuse
Some people who are out there in the online world, often buy expired domains and repurpose them for their new websites. Then, they publish a huge amount of unoriginal content with the help of AI tools to make a quick buck.
As a result, the users are deceived into believing that the content is being published by the earlier site. To put a full stop to this deception, the expired domain abuse will be considered spam now and will be dealt with appropriately under this update.
How can you adapt your SEO strategies according to Google’s March 2024 Core Update?
You can adapt your SEO strategies as per Google’s March 2024 Core Update by following these pro tips:-
- Have patience and be hopeful
In case, your website’s traffic has reduced considerably, you should not panic! The rollout of the update will last for some time and you mustn’t worry. Instead, wait for the update to show results and then analyze whether you have gained the lost traffic back again or not. Even Google’s officials are also suggesting to have patience. This advice will be beneficial for every website owner, blogger, and SEO executive. So, you better listen to those in command!
- Deindexation won’t last forever
It’s not completely clear whether the manual action of deindexation of websites is temporary, but there are strong feelers that it won’t be! You can request Google to review their decision to deindex your website. In fact, the sites which were deindexed on account of not meeting regulations are getting reindexed gradually.
- Do a content audit
The foremost thing that you have to do is to do a content audit of your website. Check out whether your content is relevant to your target audience. Along with this, find out if it is immensely valuable to your readers or not. Ensure that your website content offers expert insights as per your niche.
- Analyze the backlinks from impacted websites
If you’ve followed an intense backlink approach to get traffic from distinct high-authority websites, it’s time to review those links. Check the live status of all the quality backlinks you’ve made and remove the ones that you don’t see after searching for them. It will protect your website from Google’s probable penalty in the not-so-distant future.
- Upgrade the user experience
A great user experience is a necessary factor to rank on the top results in the SERP. So, get back to the basics and optimize your website, finetune the web page loading speed, and improve the navigation as well.
- Create useful and helpful content
Write only high-quality content for your website and blog, which meets Google’s standards for helpful content along with following the EEAT guidelines. Try to avoid AI tools as much as you can for generating content. You can use such tools for research and for catalyzing the whole writing process. Alongside this, make new digital marketing strategies as per the current scenario and your goals.
- Make new SEO strategies
Whether your website is hit or not with this update, you need to make new SEO strategies to adapt according to the recent changes. Have a full-proof and holistic strategy for your website that involves different types of SEO elements like on-page, off-page, technical, etc.
- Be aware of the algorithm changes
The March 2024 SEO update of Google has resulted in the algorithm being updated on an unprecedented scale. So, be proactive and research as much as you can regarding all the changes in Google’s search ranking algorithm.
- Analyze the impact of this core update
This update is deindexing and punishing many websites right now. You must analyze its impact on your website along with your competitors’ websites to get insights into the whole process.
- Use AI tools with caution
You have to use AI tools carefully if you want to use them for content creation. Make sure that the content is edited many times and has stats, analysis, and expert opinions as well.
- Review On-page elements
Assess and optimize your website’s on-page elements like meta titles and meta descriptions. Make sure these elements are as per the update’s guidelines.
- Audit your website regularly
You need to audit your website on a daily basis to find out the technical issues. If there are significant issues, get them fixed as soon as you can. They might have a negative effect on your website’s crawlability and indexing.
- Build a robust backlink profile
Make a wide-ranging backlink profile by earning links from authoritative websites which are within your field.
Wrapping Up
Not many updates have had such a massive impact on the search results as Google’s March 2024 update! It has charted a new path for website owners, SEO professionals, and content marketers.
If we have to equate this update with a superhero, then that has to be Gotham’s Dark Knight. Just like Batman, this update will punish the bad guys who take advantage of the good guys. Moreover, it will provide justice to those who deserve it, which was long due.
Google has reignited hope in all those marketers who were using only fair practices for their websites. Now, the onus is on us to provide helpful and amazing quality content to our users. So, let’s focus on what our target audience wants and deliver exactly that type of content!
