Google Release March 2024 Core Updates (Bigger Than Before)

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The number one site in the world, Google with its ecosystem search engine directory has released its Google March 2024 core updates which are now bigger than before when put together all previous updates

The update is still rolling out and will take days to complete roll-out, you on your site end may witness some drop in traffic or improved traffic during this Google update, and here are just a few things you need to know

Google normally releases updates every month which is welcoming to innovative tech and you as a webmaster, digital marketer, publisher, blogger or a person whose business runs on the Internet do not need to panic

Sometimes each of these Google updates may affect your website badly, sometimes gainfully. All you need is to pay attention, also learn what Google is saying about each of their newly released updates more importantly learn Core SEO by checking on more Search Engine Optimization threads here

Know more about each of these Google updates and learn the best ways you can keep optimizing your website platform or your client's websites to stay on the top ranking consistently


Haven said that, let take a look at what the Google Update is all about

Google released ambitious search quality enhancements in the March 2024 core update and multiple spam updates, the Google helpful content update is now part of the core update; all of this leads to a 40% reduction in unhelpful content within search being dropped., some being shadow banned


Google is unleashing multiple measures aimed at improving the quality of its search results beginning yesterday. Google is releasing the March 2024 core update and several spam updates (aka March 2024 spam update). The company also incorporated its helpful content system into the overall core ranking system.

In addition to this development, Google announced several new and updated spam policies that it will begin enforcing through automated algorithms and manual actions in few days from now

This Is March 2024 core update – bigger than before
Rollout started yesterday, when Google rolled out its first core update of the year 2024 and its first algorithm update of the year also

The March 2024 core update. Elizabeth Tucker, Director of Product, and Search at Google, told Search Engine Land and other tech platforms including us AfricaChoice that the update will help reduce unhelpful content in Google Search by 40%.

“We expect that the combination of this update and our previous efforts will collectively reduce low-quality, unoriginal content in search results by 40%,” Elizabeth Tucker wrote.

The rollout of the March 2024 core update may take as long as a month. Multiple systems will be updated and released during the update. This update, unlike some previous core updates, includes enhancements to several components of the overall core system.

This March core update will have multiple updates within itself, since this update touched on several systems within the core update, Google will push out updates to those systems over the coming weeks.

The March 2024 core update is a “more complex update than our usual core updates,” Chris Nelson from the Search Quality team at Google said. Google made “changes to multiple core systems,” he added. Google enhanced its core ranking systems to show more helpful results using a variety of innovative signals and approaches (more on that later).

Since Google is updating multiple core systems, “there will be more fluctuations in rankings than with a regular core update, as different systems get fully updated and reinforce each other,” Nelson added.

Google said this update has refined how it understands which webpages are “unhelpful, have a poor user experience or feel like they were created for search engines instead of people.” This “could include sites created primarily to match very specific search queries,” Google added. also don't forget to Join the AfricaChoice here for more incentives

Mean why, you can learn more about what Google is saying about this update in what they Titled: The New Ways We're Tackling Spammy, Low-Quality Contents On Search by clicking here

 

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The Google March 2024 core updates also went across "massive content publishing" (AI, Generated Contents Maybe?), Expired Domain Abuse, and Site Reputation Abuse (a.k.a parasite pages), and below is the progress breakdown

The Updates Now refer to March 2024 Spam updates​

Google also announced the release of new spam updates, which it is calling the March 2024 spam update, and spam policy updates to complement the release of the March 2024 core update.

Two of these spam updates will result in both automated and manual actions this week, yes the full roll with take the whole of March and across the first week of April, and then the site reputation abuse spam update will go into effect two months from now, on May 5, 2024

Scaled content abuse search spam​

The scaled content abuse search spam is an update to the old “spammy automatically-generated content” policy that now goes beyond just “spammy auto-generated content” and is now inclusive of any method of producing content with a focus scale just to rank in search pages.

Google said producing content at scale to boost search rankings — whether with automation, people, or a combination — is now against its guidelines.

“This will allow us to take action on more types of content with little to no value created at scale, like pages that pretend to have answers to popular searches but fail to deliver helpful content,” Google wrote.

What are examples of pages that pretend to have answers but fail to deliver? Tucker explained that those are the pages that start by stating they will answer your question, lead you on with low-quality content, and never end up giving you the answer to your questions.

“Our long-standing spam policy has been that use of automation, including generative AI, is spam if the primary purpose is manipulating ranking in Search results.

The updated policy is in the same spirit as our previous policy and based on the same principle. It’s been expanded to account for more sophisticated scaled content creation methods where it isn’t always clear whether low-quality content was created purely through automation,” Nelson wrote.

“Our new policy is meant to help people focus more clearly on the idea that producing content at scale is abusive if done to manipulate search rankings and that this applies whether automation or humans are involved in the creation of the content,” he added.

Google will start to take action against scaled content abuse both through algorithmic spam systems and manual actions, which started in the first week of March 2024.

Expired domain abuse is now considered spam​

Getting expired domains just to influence search ranking is now abusive, says Google. “Expired domain abuse” — the practice of buying expired domains and repurposing them with the “intention of boosting the search ranking of low-quality content” is now considered an abuse

Yes is now considered spam abuse, Tucker said. This technique may try to trick users into thinking new content on a domain is part of the old site, when it may not be.

This is a specific and clear message to content creators to not purchase expired domains with the intent of repurposing those domains to rank in Google Search.

Google will start to take action against expired domain abuse both through algorithmic spam systems and manual actions this week and have this part of the Google ecosystem deliver high-quality content to the SERPs.

Site reputation abuse (aka Parasite SEO) is spam too​

Google has a new policy for “site reputation abuse,” some SEOs have been calling it “Parasite SEO,” where third-party sites host low-quality content provided by third parties to piggyback on the ranking power of those third-party websites.

Google explained, “A third party might publish payday loan reviews on a trusted educational website to gain ranking benefits from the site.” “Such content ranking highly in Search can confuse or mislead visitors who may have vastly different expectations for the content on a given website,” Google added.

This new policy clarifies that “third-party content produced primarily for ranking purposes and without close oversight of a website owner to be spam.” But this new policy doesn’t consider all third-party content to be a violation. Google said,

“Only that which is hosted without close oversight and which is intended to manipulate search rankings.” Google offered this example: “Many publications host advertising content that is intended for their regular readers, rather than to primarily manipulate Search rankings.

Sometimes called ‘native advertising’ or ‘advertorial,’ this kind of content typically wouldn’t confuse regular readers of the publication when they find it on the publisher’s site directly or when arriving at it from Google’s search results.”

Google said they are giving two-month advance notice of this policy and will start to take both automated and manual actions on this abuse in two months. The specific date is May 5, 2024, and don't forget to Sign Up for Africa Choice here for more incentives. Also check the Marketplace