If you want to search anything, you will directly go to Google and type your query. Unlimited search results are available at your fingertip just in seconds. Sometimes pitfall websites with AI content rank above than original content. To counter this problem, Google launched some updates on 5th March 2024.
Due to the sudden huge influx of AI-generated content on the internet, Google releases updates to improve its search results by opposing spammers and AI content. These updates will help to stimulate the user experience and provide the best search results on the web.
Google Core Update will update the spam policies to keep the lowest-quality content out of Search, like expired websites repurposed as spam repositories by new owners and obituary spam.
These updates will now rank down the content that is written purposely just to rank up in search results using keywords. With Google new algorithm, it will become easier to rank up their page that is producing high-quality and helpful content.
March 2024 Update: Bundles of Updates
Google’s one of the biggest updates: It is designed to improve search algorithms and policies to handle spam and low-quality content. Google rolled out three major updates in the name of Google Core Update:
- Broad Core Update
- Helpful Content Update
- Spam Update 2024
Broad Core Update
Every year Google rolls out two Broad Core Updates, first in February/March and second in September/October. The purpose of this update is to change search ranking using Google new algorithm. Broad core updates are designed to surface the most helpful information on the web and to improve search result relevance and user satisfaction.
This will help websites that publish helpful and original content over low-quality manipulative content and rank them accordingly. Google is trying to reduce poor and unoriginal content as much as it can in search results. It is advised to publish high-quality original content, build strong backlinks, and enhance social signals.
Helpful Content Update
With the March 2024 Google Core Update, this is the last helpful content update from Google. But this doesn’t mean you will not get the upcoming updates. This will become an integral part of the core ranking system update and will come with Broad Core Update.
This update targets low-quality content that lacks authority and trustworthiness, which may rank high in the search results, but fails to provide valuable information to people. Websites with a massive amount of unhelpful content will experience a negative impact on their search rankings.
According to Google new algorithm, the Helpful content system will automatically run all the time. The websites will automatically rank down if their key motto is to get traffic from the search engine and monetise it. Google will exclude these websites without any updates.
Spam Update 2024
Google is frequently updating their spam regulations and policies to better handle emerging abusive techniques that cause low-quality, unoriginal material to appear in Search results. This update will ensure the declination of spam repositories by new owners and obituary spam. The Google update aims to keep low-quality content out of search results and downrank pages created for search engines.
Scaled Content Abuse
This Scaled Content Abuse refers to the practice of AI-generated content publishing at a large amount on the website. This policy is originally designed to address unoriginal and non-helpful content at a massive scale. And it ensures the removal of such not worthy content from the search results.
The policies are being rigid towards following abusive actions:
- Producing an invaluable large amount of content whether written by AI, Humans or Both combination.
- Fails to deliver high-quality content.
Spamming people with links and ads from unreliable sources will be penalized and reliable for strict action. The content that fails to deliver helpful and original content will be downgraded by Google itself after this Google Core Update. If the website churns a large amount of low-quality content, then Google will take strict action on these websites.
Site Reputation Abuse
This Site Reputation Abuse refers to a situation where a reputable website focuses on popular topics or suddenly starts publishing unrelated content solely to leverage its brand authority. It was given a fancy name “Parasite SEO”. Google will track websites that are leveraging the brand authority and trust of other websites to boost their rankings. These websites will be crushed and diminished their rankings.
Updating popular content instead of their niche content. E.g. News agencies producing content of “Best Air Purifiers in India: 2024”. Google new algorithm will consider these websites as low-quality and unoriginal. Publishing unrelated content confuses or misleads people who have other expectations for the content.
Google has given a deadline to site owners to change their content if needed before May 5, 2024.
Expired Domain Abuse
It’s common for people to buy old/expired domains so that they can redirect backlinks and increase their impressions on the website. The purpose of these practices is to leverage traffic and generate revenue from it. To overcome these malpractices, Google is cracking down on these kinds of actions.
This misleads people coming for certain content instead of unrelated pieces of information. Purchasing expired domains for the sake of leveraging brand authority and backlinks and publishing low-quality, unrelated content will be considered spam.
Google new algorithm will take action against expired domain abuse both through algorithmic spam systems and manual actions this week.
Effects Of Google Core Update
Google is planning to eliminate 40% of the content from the search results that seems not helpful and unoriginal. These updates will be induced in many systems, so it will take around a month to fully and functionally roll out. In this period, websites will rank up and down frequently. And Google will share the status of the searches.
These updates involve refining core ranking systems to help Google understand if webpages could be more helpful, have a better user experience, or feel like they were created for search engines instead of people.
As spam and old websites vanish, the most helpful and original content will significantly rise to the top of search results.
