News Analysis
The Gist
- Core update goals. March 2024 update aims to improve search results, reduce reliance on single signals, and cut low-quality content by 40%.
- Spam update focus. New policies target scaled content, site reputation, and expired domain abuses to combat low-quality content in search.
- SEO impact. Experts should monitor rankings for fluctuations. Recovery from performance drops may need content improvements and await the next update.
Google has released multiple new updates, including the March 2024 core update and multiple spam updates, coined the March 2024 spam update.
The goal of these updates is to improve the quality of search results and show less content that feels like it was made to attract clicks.
March 2024 Core Update
The March 2024 core update is the first core update of the year and more complex than usual core updates, involving changes to multiple systems. With this update, Google will no longer rely on one single signal or system to show more helpful search results.
Google began to fine-tune its rankings systems in 2022 to reduce unhelpful, unoriginal content in search, and this algorithmic change will continue that work to provide the most helpful content on the web in search results. Google officials said they expect the update (along with previous efforts) to reduce low-quality unoriginal content in search results by 40%.
The search giant said it’s refining its core ranking system to better understand if web pages are unhelpful, have a poor user experience or feel like they were created for search engines rather than people. It believes this update will send more traffic to helpful and high-quality sites.
Rollout of the March 2024 core update may take up to a month. In the meantime, there are likely to be more fluctuations in rankings than with a regular core update.
Right now, there is nothing creators need to do, according to Google, as long as they’ve been developing valuable content made for people. For those not ranking as well, Google provides a help page on creating helpful, reliable, people-first content, which includes questions creators can ask themselves, such as:
- Does the content offer original information, reporting, research or analysis?
- Does the content offer a substantial, complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
- If the content uses other sources, does it avoid copying or rewriting those sources?
- Does the content present information in a way that makes you want to trust it, such as clear sourcing or background information on the author?
Previous core updates included:
Related Article: What's New in Search? Top SEO Strategies for 2024
March 2024 Spam Update
Google has also introduced new and improved spam policies to keep low-quality content out of search. The March 2024 spam update may take up to two weeks to rollout.
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The search giant will continue to rely on spam detection systems, such as its AI-based spam prevention system SpamBrain.
In 2021, SpamBrain identified nearly six times more spam sites than in 2020, which resulted in a 70% reduction in hacked spam and a 75% reduction of gibberish spam on hosting platforms. (For comparison, Google’s spam systems found 40 billion spammy pages every day in 2020.) Google also detects spam through human review as needed.
These new updates to Google’s spam policies will better address new and evolving abuse practices that lead to unoriginal and low-quality content showing up in search.
Scaled Content Abuse
Google will strengthen its scaled content policy to focus on abuse behavior around content generated at scale — whether with automation, humans or a combination — to boost search rankings.
One example of scaled content Google points toward is pages that pretend to have answers to popular searches but fail to deliver truly useful content.
Site Reputation Abuse
Some high-quality websites publish low-quality content from third-parties in an attempt to capitalize on the hosting site’s strong reputation. However, Google now considers low-value third-party content produced primarily for ranking purposes as spam.
Google gave the example of a third-party publishing payday loan reviews to a trusted educational website. This content, according to the search giant, can confuse or mislead visitors who have pre-established expectations for the content on a given site.
Expired Domain Abuse
Sometimes creators will purchase and repurpose expired domains to boost low-quality unoriginal content in search results and make it look like the content is part of an older website.
Expired domains that are now purchased and repurposed in this way are now considered spam, according to Google.
These updates are the first of this year meant to target spam and build upon the efforts from the October 2023 spam update.
Related Article: 5 SEO Strategies to Embrace in 2024
What’s to Come in Search
It will take up to a month for all of these updates to roll out fully. In the meantime, it’s likely that search engine optimization experts will need to keep a close eye on their rankings, with fluctuations expected.
Some pages that see a drop in performance might see a full recovery once the rollouts are complete. However, recovery is not guaranteed, and creators may need to make improvements to their content. If improvements are made, performance may not recover until the next core update is released.
