Google’s March 2024 Core Update Will Impact Digital Marketers
The latest Google update on March 5, 2024, has introduced significant changes to its search algorithm, impacting how websites are ranked and displayed in search results. The March 2024 Google Core Update is all about fighting spam.
1. Deindexing Websites
Google’s goal is to deliver quality search results for every query. Google emphasized its goal of reducing unhelpful, irrelevant, unoriginal content from search results. This cleanup drive promises to remove up to 40% of low-quality websites that provide useless information and poor user experience – pages created just to match specific search queries.
Websites found violating Google’s guidelines or employing questionable SEO tactics will not only be penalized but completely removed both from the search results and the index.
2. Penalties are Swift
What’s notable about this update is that the penalties were hard and fast. To check if your site was impacted by the Google update, look for your website in Google by typing “site:website.com” and see if you are showing up in the search results. Algorithmic updates are automated and Google does not notify the site owner when a site is negatively (or positively) impacted by an algorithm update.
3. Scaled Content Abuse
Scaled content abuse occurs when websites produce a large volume of low-quality or duplicative content across multiple pages with the primary goal of influencing search rankings. With Google’s emphasis on promoting helpful, reliable, people-first content, websites that rely on scaled content for ranking manipulation are likely to be adversely affected by the update.
4. Expired Domain Abuse
Expired domain redirects involve purchasing defunct domains with existing backlinks and redirecting them to a target website to boost its link profile and search engine rankings. While this tactic may provide a temporary SEO boost, it’s a risky strategy that goes against Google’s guidelines and best practices. Google’s algorithms are becoming increasingly adept at identifying and penalizing manipulative practices like expired domain redirects, especially when the redirected domains are not relevant to the target website’s content.
As an SEO specialist, your online presence is crucial. With the March 2024 Google Core Update in mind, it’s essential to take proactive steps to ensure your website is well-prepared to maintain or improve its search engine ranking.
One of the first steps you should take is conducting a thorough review of your website’s content.
Conclusion
After Google’s latest core update, there are important concepts to focus on to stay ahead in search engine rankings. The first thing to remember is that high-quality content—meaningful, informative, and valuable information—has become even more critical than before. This means your content needs to be original, relevant, and user-centric to match the objectives set by this update. To put it into perspective for website owners, it means acknowledging what your users want. What are they searching for? How can you answer their questions or provide solutions to their problems better than anyone else? That’s what good content is all about. By understanding and addressing user intent effectively, you can create compelling content that meets their needs, leading to improved search engine rankings.
