Impact of Google’s March 2024 Core Update

45 days to complete rolling out a Google update? Yes, the topic of discussion here is the March 2024 Core update .

Google has finished the March 2024 Core update, 7 days before it was officially announced. The update, which started rolling out on March 5, 2024, ended on April 19, though Google announced completion on April 26.

45 Days and 45% Reduction in Unhelpful Content

This update revolutionizes search results by prioritizing user experience and content quality. Fresh spam policies were introduced by Google to filter out unhelpful content from search results. Those policies are – Expired domain abuse, Scaled content abuse, and Site reputation abuse. With this update which took 45 days to roll out, you’ll see 45% less low-quality, unoriginal content in search results.

Google has warned that sites that violate their spam policies may rank lower in results or not appear in results at all. The main aim of this update is to remove unhelpful content from search results. Low quality or unhelpful content refers to content published only to get clicks, or content that manipulates the algorithm to rank higher.

Analyzing Its Impact – Is It the Craziest Update Ever?

Many sites are impacted by algorithmic changes and deindexed from Google Search. This update clearly shows Google’s approach to maintaining search result quality. In its earlier stages itself, Google deindexed hundreds of websites, targeting low-quality content and AI-generated spam. Deindexed sites face significant consequences, losing organic search traffic and advertising revenue.

Ian Nuttall, a prominent figure in the SEO community, highlighted key findings on Google’s latest initiative impacting websites.

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Nuttall noted that of the 49,345 sites monitored, 837 websites were removed entirely from Google’s search index.

Other impacts that he noted include

• 1.7% of sites got hit
• Over 20,756,785 monthly organic traffic visits gone
• Estimated $446,552 per month in lost display ad revenue

Another study conducted by Originality.ai highlights that approximately 50% of the impacted sites had 90-100% AI-generated posts. This study shows that the update targets websites relying heavily on AI-generated content to manipulate search rankings.

Is AI Content to Be Blamed?

By taking manual action against websites, Google clearly warns against AI-driven spam and low-quality content.

Your website may not be penalized just because you used AI on your site. It could be targeted if you’ve spam or low-quality content, generated to reach the top positions on search engine results pages.

The main concern is to honestly assess whether your content is useful, thorough, reliable, and prioritizes people.

Need Recovery Steps?

The first step is to remove any unhelpful content you’ve posted. Follow Google’s new spam policies. Also, address any technical issues you face, and enhance the user experience. Recovery after this involves aligning with Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, focusing on E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), and acquiring high-quality backlinks.

Deindexed websites can first request Google to review its decision. Also, websites that were deindexed due to non-compliance issues may automatically get re-indexed. So, the primary solution to improve rankings is to create high-quality, original content. Consider utilizing professional content writing services to meet your content goals.

Hope you’ve seen Google’s feedback form to provide feedback following the completion of the core update.

Google makes it clear that “the feedback is not used to make changes to a specific query, to specific listings, or for specific sites. It is only used to consider general improvements that may work across Search generally in the future, teams at Google will not respond to these submissions.”