How Has the Google March 2024 Core Update Impacted the SEO Landscape?

Google began to roll out a new core update in March of 2024. Usually, it only takes a week or so for a new update to completely roll out. This update, however, was much more complex and took a total of 45 days to complete. What does that mean for the SEO landscape?

What Did the March 2024 Core Update Do?

The March 2024 Core Update was so complex because it addressed multiple core Google systems. However, it had one primary focus: spam reduction. From the onset, Google’s goal has been to provide users with the most useful and high-quality content when they search. Most, if not all of their core updates have been made with this goal in mind.

This latest update is no different. This update’s aim is to reduce or eliminate the amount of spam, or content produced exclusively to attract clicks rather than actually be useful to users, that searchers see. It’s also to reward those who publish high-quality content aimed at users, not search engines, with higher rankings over those who do not.

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What Kinds of Spam Does the Google March 2024 Core Update Address?

According to Google, there are three primary types of spam that this new core update affects:

Expired Domain Abuse

This type of spam involves purchasing an expired domain name and then using it to produce content that has little value to users, thereby attempting to manipulate search rankings.

Scaled Content Abuse

Scaled content abuse involves producing many pages exclusively for the purpose of manipulating the rankings. In many cases, scaled content abuse involves generative AI being used to quickly produce many pages.

Site Reputation Abuse

Site reputation abuse occurs when a site publishes third-party content that doesn’t have close oversight by the site owner and is published with the intention of manipulating search rankings.

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What Changes Should You Make Because of the March 2024 Core Update?

If you’re producing high-quality content with users as your target audience, then no changes are needed. This update targeted content that was aimed at manipulating search engines. If you have experienced a drop in rankings, consider examining your content and making updates where needed to improve its usefulness and quality. Keep in mind the four principles of EEAT:

• Expertise
• Experience
• Authority
• Trustworthiness

Ensuring that all of your content meets those criteria is the best thing you can do to not only protect yourself from this particular core update but also to future-proof your content from future core updates.

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Can You Still Use AI To Produce Content After the March 2024 Core Update?

The short answer is that it depends on how you were using AI to produce content. If the purpose of using AI was to mass-generate content to manipulate the search engines rather than to produce high-quality content, then that will most likely negatively affect your rankings. If you were instead using AI as a tool to enhance your content, then you might be safe. Our recommendation is to always have a human writer produce your content, whether AI is involved or not, so that there’s expert human oversight over any content that is produced. You don’t necessarily have to avoid using AI altogether, but it should be a helpful writing aid, not the writer.