Google announced the first update of March 2024 Google Core Update. Which it calls “a change in the way we evaluate the value of content.”
Highlights
This will be Accompanied by a Spam Update Designed to Remove Outdated Text
Aims to “remove the most important information on the web”. An effort that Google launched with the Content Update (HCU) in August 2022, while updating purposeful practices such as spam. The use of previous website content. Use any part of the website to allow spam factories or SEO-focused spam content.
Google promises that these updates will “reduce low-quality, negative search terms by 40% overall.”
This announcement should be welcome news for anyone who thinks the quality of Google results has declined in recent years. So how will Google’s changes solve the current problem? Does the approach Google is taking still affect websites that are serious about being evaluated by people. For people, for the content Google claims it wants to promote?
Google has released a major update to its search algorithms and policies to address spam and malicious content on its search engine.
The March 2024 Google Core Update is now available and the company says it has more than just regular updates.
This update includes algorithm changes to improve search quality and reduce spam.
Google’s Content Creation Purpose: AI Content or Programmatic SEO?
Google’s Content Creation Purpose: A Senior SEO consultant, speaker, and author Aleyda Solis posted a comment on Google News detailing what she believes are the most common SEO strategy questions asked by the post on Google. More importantly, he mentioned the term “content abuse” and wrote about “(low-cost) programmatic SEO” (also known as “parasite SEO” as well as “website abuse”).
This is an interesting point, as many people think that “content exploitation” (which Google defines as “the use of automation to create bad content or irrelevant content at scale”) refers to content developed as a form of intelligence. .. But for a technology company like Google, which has invested heavily in the creation of artificial intelligence, this situation seems to be the opposite.
SEO experts discuss whether Google is trying to block “bad” AI-generated content; This is a topic that has been discussed since HCU’s inception. That may still be the case, and Google’s vague language allows it to cover a lot of ground. But the use of the word “scale” is also important.
Search Engine Land, Barry Schwartz learned more about the latest change from Google and concluded that “any method of generating index content for search engine rankings” violates Google’s guidelines. This is the essence of the definition of programmatic SEO or SEO, as its approach is all about creating content (using templates and libraries to create large pages) to suit today’s search index.
Proponents of programmatic SEO argue that SEO is not necessarily spammy (like Solis promotes “low-cost” programmatic SEO) and, if successful, can be use to create meaningful content. We might want to see if Google’s algorithms agree.I Content or Programmatic SEO?
Improve Ranking
One of the key features of the March 2024 Google Core Update is improving Google rankings.
We’re making algorithmic improvements to our ranking system to ensure we’re showing the most important information on the web and reducing irrelevant search terms,” said Elizabeth Tucker, Director of Product Research at Google.
The company has been working to reduce useless and ineffective content since 2022, and the March 2024 update builds on these efforts.
An optimization will provide a better understanding of whether the website is more useful to humans, a better experience for users, or appears to be design primarily for search engines.
Google expects the combination of this update and previous efforts to lead to a 40% reduction in negative, irrelevant search terms.
Will Google Come After Niche Sites
Tony Hill, who describes himself on his website as a “niche website owner since 2005”, asked if Google’s words in its announcement meant “always seeking to use the standard of the website”.
Google writes that it has tweaked its algorithms to detect “useless” pages, which “may include sites built specifically to match specific queries.”
But Hill notes that Google’s own SEO guidelines in its Google Search Fundamentals document advise website owners to “use the words people use to find your content and embed the message This message is important” on the page. In fact, this is the key to SEO keyword optimization.
One might think that creating content or a website just to match a specific query would be OK, as long as the content meets the query (and not only). But the problem for Google may be that this content is too objective to be useful when it appears in other search results.
Hill is right, Google has created its own monster – SEOs do what they do because Google can send a lot of traffic if you can get to the right place and Google’s business model is based on that (Not just because it benefits from SEO) SEO discussion and research as well as paid search are beneficial because it should be).
But the opposite is the ups and downs that always come with the process (Ori Zilbershtein has long talked SEOs about the “rollercoaster” of GIFs he chooses).
SEOs Don’t believe Google can succeed
Barry Schwartz conducted a survey asking SEOs whether March 2024 Google Core Update would deliver on its promise to “reduce useless search terms by 40%.”
responses were quite high; 79% of SEOs vote no at the time of this writing, and over 1,000 people voted.
In response, many users expressed skepticism as well as hope; some expressed concern that “many nice little sites could get lose in the fire” (Charlie Conti) or that the update would “miss one better place”. There’s this too -(Peter Mindenhall).
As Daniel Hart says, “There’s no use in updating – have had the same problem for the last 6 months.”
The fact that Google has been dealing with this issue for a while (it’s been over six months since the main content update was first released). and still has to release the update shows that it’s still a long way off. . By solving problems. You can’t blame SEOs for not believing that this new wave won’t change much.
With many users underestimating Google’s major update cycle. Mark Williams-Cook created a fun graphic that depicts major updates as an endless cycle of benefits for big businesses and spam sites.
As Carl Hendy wrote in an important tweet in May 2020. the main content of a Google core update tends to be quite convincing:
Conclusion
Google warns that the March update will be a “more complex update with changes across multiple platforms”. It will take up to a month to roll out, which will result in ranking changes. Legitimate websites that contain spammy content (know as “abusive websites”). It will be give two months to clean up their policies, and penalties will be issue from May 5.
As always. it will take some time for the true impact of the Google update to become clear. There’s plenty to keep SEOs busy in the meantime.
