If you are involved in digital marketing and have worked on creating and improving an SEO strategy for your company over the years, you are aware that Google plays a central role in your approach. Google is the industry titan, and if you find the best way to please it, everything else will work itself out.
The issue is that Google is constantly improving its offerings, and these modifications are affecting the entire digital world. These improvements, as Google calls them, are known as broad core algorithm upgrades. This means that, in order to receive the best results from your SEO strategy, you must regularly adjust your plans and take these fundamental changes into account.
Google Algorithm Updates – What We Need to Know
Google uses a sophisticated system of algorithms to extract information from its search index and provide the most relevant search results for a query right away. To display web pages ranked by relevance on their search engine results pages (SERPs), the search engine combines a number of ranking elements and algorithms.
Did you know that there are 13 average changes to a Google search query every day? Fortunately, most of these modifications are slight; however, algorithm adjustments typically have a greater, more pronounced effect. Rankings, traffic, and revenue can all change significantly as a result of algorithm modifications. SEO specialists, marketers, and expanding companies have all had to adjust to Google’s fundamental algorithm changes, as you are aware. The history of Google algorithm updates is really long, with an unbelievable number of 4,725 changes in 2022.
However, two significant changes to the Google algorithm were made in March of this year and previously in October 2023, with the goal of eliminating spam and low-quality content. Many companies have had to adjust their SEO strategies in response to these modifications, which have the potential to affect rankings in the coming weeks or months.
The March 2024 Core Updates from Google
You’re undoubtedly cringing right now if you’ve been in the SEO game long enough to recall the Penguin update from 2012. That was back when Google went all out and started penalizing and de-indexing hundreds of websites, which resulted in businesses losing 100% of their traffic overnight. This March, we have seen the exact same thing occur.
The Google Core update that was released in March 2024 is not like other algorithm changes because this update targets multiple facets of search and SEO strategies. It is divided into two parts: a core update and a separate spam update.
Regular updates from Google require ongoing adjustments to changing laws. It is imperative to have an experienced team of digital marketers working for you if you want to succeed online and protect your website from potential harm. For knowledgeable services that are tailored to the particular needs of your company, look no further than Slick, a Miami-based digital marketing agency.
Things You Need to Know
Today, we are going to cover a few things you should know to stay out of trouble and keep your search engine ranking high.
- Websites that Google determines to be abusing its policies or using suspicious SEO techniques are being fully deindexed. Up to 40% of poor websites with bad user experiences and meaningless information—pages made specifically to fit search queries—will be eliminated as part of this cleanup effort, according to the announcement. You can only imagine the awful consequences that a website facing deindexation is facing, including sudden traffic loss.
- Google has always placed a strong focus on readability, depth, and innovation. Websites that were taken down and deindexed frequently had a lot of low or replicated content that lacked original ideas or viewpoints.
- The main reason we’re seeing these updates from Google is that, aside from unoriginal, outdated, or illegal information, there is a variety of AI-generated content. Google’s dedication to preventing the spread of spam and low-quality content generated by artificial intelligence is seen in the manual actions taken against these websites. Keep in mind that content generated by AI is not the problem itself, and Google appears to be trying to find a perfect balance between the most effective search results and the “human touch.”
- Furthermore, without sufficient control, websites that post low-quality content from other parties primarily to raise their own rankings may come under investigation and suffer consequences from the update. In order to protect a website’s search visibility after algorithm changes, you should make sure that any outside contributions, whether they be sponsored articles or guest posts, comply with Google’s guidelines.
- On the contrary, other websites have just experienced variations in keyword rankings and traffic. It could be the case that updates are still being released. It’s also important to monitor your site over the coming months to observe how these changes affect results over time, as SEO is an ongoing task.
Adapt or Stay Behind
You may keep up a strong online presence, draw in more organic visitors, and eventually accomplish your online objectives by keeping up with the most recent Google developments and modifying your digital marketing strategies accordingly. Staying up to date with these improvements is crucial to your success, whether you’re optimizing for content marketing, e-commerce, local SEO, or any other kind of online business.
Website owners and content producers will need to adjust as Google places more emphasis on uniqueness and quality when the update rolls out. In the months to come, as the March 2024 Core update is implemented more widely, its full effects will become clearer to all of us. The foundation of great SEO is still the same; your aim should be to provide content that benefits readers more than search engines. It should not be too difficult for you to publish good material that your target audience is interested in reading.
Maintaining the highest standards for SEO and encouraging real user value is essential to staying ahead of the curve. It’s all about prioritizing your users first and foremost. After this upgrade, maintaining your site’s relevance and value will mostly depend on how well the user experience and content are done.
