The month has ended, and you are checking your traffic report, but you witnessed your search traffic dropped significantly. Wait what did you do wrong? Why is there a huge dip in search traffic for March?
…Spoiler Alert…
Your website may have been affected by Google’s March Algorithm Update.
As we all know, Google is no nonnative regarding releasing updates for a better search experience.
In fact, every year Google launches several algorithm changes that directly affect the search ranking of your website [major updates] and minor updates that have close to zero impacts on your site.
Last year, we witnessed the release of a core update called the “helpful content update“ that sought to crack down on sites that “trick” Google by ranking their site higher while providing no “value” for readers.
However, in this year’s core update, Google is advancing on the gains chalked by the helpful content update. According to Google, the March 2024 algorithm update helps in “reducing the amount of low-quality content on Search and send more traffic to helpful and high-quality sites”.
In this article, we will explore the new Google algorithm update and what it means for businesses on Search.
What is the Google Search Algorithm?
Google Search algorithms are a set of ranking factors or signals Google uses to calculate which pages appear where on the search engine results page(SERP).
Based on the content written and submitted to search engines, an algorithm may determine where your page is when a user makes a query related to your content.
What is the March 2024 Update
The Google Search March 2024 algorithm update seeks to crack down on spammy and low-quality content while rewarding sites with the “most helpful information on the web”.
According to Google, the March 2024 core update seeks to remove low-quality and unoriginal content from the Search Engine Results Page(SERP).
Which sites are affected by this March 2024 Core Update
1. Sites Using AI to Scale its Content:
Content Marketing with AI is not bad – hence, Content Writers are encouraged to use AI in their content optimization techniques. However, according to Google, excessive use of these AI tools to produce low-quality and unoriginal content is detrimental to users on Search.
In line with this, Google is now deindexing Sites that use AI to generate content on a scale. So far, more than 1400 representing 2% of websites have been affected, with Google aiming to remove up to 40% of unhelpful content from the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) with this update.
These low-quality or unoriginal contents trick search engines into ranking them higher. For example, pages that pretend to have answers to popular searches but fail to deliver helpful content.
2. Guest Blogging SPAM:
Sometimes authoritative websites allow small websites to host content on their website to increase their reputation. However, this method of generating website reputation is on the rise – hence, increasing SPAM on Search.
For example or example, a third-party site that publishes payday loan reviews on a trusted educational website to gain ranking benefits from that site will be penalized.
3. Expired Domain Abuse
Another trick blackhat SEO experts use to improve rankings is the purchasing and repurposing of expired domains to boost search rankings for low-quality and unoriginal content.
This technique has now been identified and classified as SPAM as per the new core updates and sites doing this may face punishments such as deindexing your site from Search.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Google Search updates are periodic upgrades Google makes to search for a better and improved search experience for all its users.
In essence, anyone who comes to search is looking for a solution that can solve their issue, thereby demanding the best responses from Search engines.
Therefore, whether it’s AI you are using at a large scale to produce content with little or no value or it’s buying expired domains to rank, these actions are classified as abuse or spam under these new updates and may affect the experience of other users on Search.
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