Google March 2024 Core Update: What it is & How to Fix It? 

The Google March 2024 Core Update was officially announced on March 5th, with Google promising changes in the next 45 days. It was scheduled to run until April 19th, and Google announced its completion on April 26th, 2024. Like all the other Google updates, this one left some site owners happy and others with their websites scrambling. 

This article discusses March 2024’s unhelpful content update. What does it mean, and which SEO moves can help scrambling websites regain their glory?  

If you are looking for an SEO team to confidently fix your website after the website, email us at [email protected] or call us at +254794837374.  

On March 5th, 2024, Google announced its first core update 2024. It was a 45-day algorithm change aiming to tackle spammy and low-quality content on search. Their main aim was to help users see more helpful content and fewer results that feel made for the search engines.  

Unlike most of the previous Google updates, this one was to take 45 days to improve quality ranking and update the Google spam policies on websites. 

From their update, these were some of the issues to be addressed: 

The update involved refining some core ranking factors to understand whether a webpage deserved its current rankings. Did it deserve to be in higher ranks or lower ranks? It aimed to nullify sites created to match specific search queries with low-quality content. 

Google aimed to improve its spam policies to address new and abusive SEO practices that help low-quality content up the search. 

With automation tools emerging and becoming more sophisticated, Google aimed to strengthen its policies on scaled content. Their main idea was to set up effective policies that address the abuse of scaled content using automation to boost rankings. For example, websites with many pages address popular queries without helpful answers. 

Another issue addressed on the Google March 2024 Core Update was site reputation manipulation. Websites with high authority hosting content from third parties primarily created to improve rankings.  

Lastly, site owners who buy authoritative domains with high authority and re-purpose them with the sole intention of ranking using low-quality content.  

Nowadays, UGC content is everywhere. It is the trending form of content, including images, videos, audio files, text, etc.  

With brands using UGC marketing, we now have consumer-generated marketing.  

Here are the benefits of UGC marketing: 

The first step after experiencing an extreme decrease in traffic between March 5th and April 19th is to diagnose the problem. Are all the pages affected, or is the entire site affected? The decrease curve should be sharp and conspicuous on the Search console. If you are familiar with Google Search Console, it should be easy to filter out the pages. 

Talk to our SEO experts if you need help with an SEO website audit.  

After diagnosing the pages, it can be the whole site; the next step is removing them. Remember, Google’s main objective is to answer questions for billions of people using search. Hence, they prioritize helpful content for rankings. 

We recommend you unpublish all the affected pages. It is a bold move, but it offers a general idea of how your site is currently doing with the unaffected pages, and you can demonstrate your relevance to Google and its users. Remember, it is unlikely that Google will re-rank these pages without making core changes to them following their recommendations. 

A good SEO audit should show you the irrelevant details your website was previously ranking for using targeted search queries. The update targets such practices and uses it to discredit your website. 

We recommend you say goodbye to the affected pages irrelevant to your website. SEO is a marathon, and small but sure steps guarantee stability. So, if you have content previously created for search that is irrelevant to your website, get rid of it. 

Some pages may be affected by outdated information, thin content, or duplicate content, but they are still relevant to your website. Take a critical look at these pages and start re-optimizing them.

Remember, Google prioritizes high-quality, informative, and valuable content that provides value to searchers. It would be best to have SEO Copywriters do the rewriting and optimization for you. After all, they can easily balance writing for both search and users.

SEO is a continuous process; it is one of the most effective and ignored facts among website owners. Everyone is looking for quick fixes in the most unethical way, which leaves their sites dead after a core update. Avoid temptations like: 

• Keyword stuffing 
• Link buying 

• Scaled low-quality AI Content 
• Content irrelevant to the domain 
• Site Reputation & Authority Abuse 

Instead, build a strong SEO foundation with Google’s best practices. An SEO agency can help with this. They are detailed and on top of any Google announcements and updates. 

Recovering from a core update like the March 2024 Google Core Update takes time and persistent SEO efforts. Implement the tips above and keep making changes while monitoring the performance.