Some thoughts on the March 2024 Google Core Updates

Google has announced its first core update of 2024 and a new spam content policy, which are likely to be of great interest to everyone. Here’s a summary:

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1. Core Algorithm Update Highlights
   1. Ways to Adapt?
2. Spam Content Policy Update Highlights
3. Summary

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Core Algorithm Update Highlights

• Broad Scope: This is not a minor update; this is considered a “MAJOR” update where Google will make improvements to multiple core systems.
• Importance of Practical Content: Google emphasizes that the focus of this update is on enhancing the display of practical results and improving the identification of “web pages created for search engine rankings rather than for users.” Google’s goal is to reduce unhelpful content in search results by an estimated 40%.
• Time: The update may take up to a month, as it involves improvements to multiple systems that reinforce each other. Significant ranking fluctuations can be expected during this period.

Ways to Adapt?

Well, this is a really new and major update, so I am just jotting down some thoughts here…

• Content Quality: Check your website to ensure all content is high-quality, original, and genuinely provides value to users.
• User Experience: Ensure your website offers a good user experience, including fast loading speeds, easy navigation, and mobile-friendliness.
• Continuous Monitoring: Since the update may cause ranking fluctuations, continuously monitor your website’s performance and be prepared to adjust based on feedback.

Spam Content Policy Update Highlights

• Abuse of Expired Domains: Purchasing previously operated expired domains and filling them with low-quality content to boost search rankings is now considered spam by Google.
  • For example, buying a domain that was once related to the medical industry but later filling it with gambling content and low-quality articles will be judged as spam.
• Abuse of Scalable Content: Google is now cracking down more strictly on content farms that mass-produce content for search rankings, whether AI-generated or manually written. Ensure that content is of high quality and created for users.
• Abuse of Website Reputation: Using the authority of third-party websites to publish low-quality content is also now blacklisted. This practice, known as “parasitic SEO” abroad, is offered by some services. Searching for “Google footprint” can reveal related information. Many websites may inadvertently fall victim to this, I’ll write something about countermeasures we can take regarding this later.

Summary

These updates emphasize the importance of providing valuable, user-focused content and maintaining a strong website reputation to succeed in SEO.

While its impact is going to be huge, most marketers are still waiting and watching the changes and formulating ways to minimize the impacts.