Intro
The war between Humans and AI is imminent, a battle of quality and depth versus monotonous content, repetitive point of view, and the same old mixture of pointless blabbering that inexperienced content writers post on the SERPs have made things difficult. And because of fading authenticity, emotion, and high-quality content. Google stepped in to make changes to keep the platform relevant and informative. Search engines have recently experienced a wave of AI content, and the surge of easily accessible generative AI brought forward the latest Google Core update.
The Google updates are nothing new, they have always been consistent but the recent Google’s March 2024 Core Algorithm Update initiated a massive change. Which led many websites to lose their website traffic and ranking. But how should we approach this matter and solve this issue? If you are someone who has faced severe repercussions because of this Google algorithm updates. Read ahead to find out more.
What are Google Algorithm Updates & Why do they Happen?
Google Algorithm is a list of rules and regulations for ranking websites on SERPs. Algorithm changes in Google are consistent because of the ever-evolving nature of user behaviors and modern technology. Google has always focused on organizing data and providing users with relevant and high-quality content. Hence, Google updates target specific issues like reducing spam. irrelevant. and offensive content. Google initiates these updates because the data available on Google makes a difference in the lives of many people globally. Thus, to make a difference in places where it matters most. The search engine regularly introduces many updates like Google helpful content update and several other core updates to enhance the user experience and Google algorithm for SEO.
Google’s March 2024 Core Algorithm Update:
Google’s March 2024 core algorithm update brought forward welcome changes for organic human content and removed the spammy AI content which did not meet the high quality standards of Google. This update was done to address the challenges that users face in finding valuable and trustworthy content.
Google drastically removed 40% of low-quality content with this update.
“We believe these updates will reduce the amount of low-quality content on Search and send more traffic to helpful and high-quality sites. Based on our evaluations, we expect that the combination of this update and our previous efforts will collectively reduce low-quality, unoriginal content in search results by 40%.”
Putting the spotlight on content abuse and low-quality content
We all know AI brought ease in the lives of many content writers, it is a helpful technology but the use of AI doesn’t cover all parameters for producing high-quality content. The lack of emotion and human touch along with the bad experience of seeing repetitive, irrelevant, and low-quality content not only brings forth the matter of content abuse but also clogs the search engine results by keeping human-written and crafted content away from the credibility and visibility it deserves.
By implementing this update Google shed some light on content abuse and gave respect and value to organic and authentic human content. Google called out the search engine manipulators and discarded their abusive practices to keep Google helpful and relevant for its users.
“Scaled content abuse is when many pages are generated for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings and not helping users. This abusive practice is typically focused on creating large amounts of unoriginal content that provides little to no value to users, no matter how it’s created.”
Did you get hit by the March 2024 Core Algorithm Update?
If you got hit by the March 2024 core algorithm update and are troubled by the repercussions you have faced. Do not worry, we have the solution for you. It's simple to solve this issue, identify the impact of the Google core update, and analyze the site metrics.
Keeping an eye on website traffic and search engine rankings
First and foremost a sudden reduction in website traffic or decline in rankings can be concerning, but do not panic. It is important to understand that these situations are not uncommon. Thus try to remain composed. The Algorithm changes and SEO Updates may have an impact on your site's performance so it is advisable to observe changes via analytics tools and pay particular attention for any significant fluctuations during Google’s announced update schedules.
Examining Diverse Website Traffic Sources
It is important to distinguish between organic search, referral, and direct traffic. When there's a decrease in organic search traffic on your site, it could imply that the visibility of the site in the SERPs might be dwindling due to the recent algorithm update. Furthermore, if you notice changes in referral or direct traffic levels this means unrelated factors are at play instead of the update issue.
Utilizing the functionality of Google Search Console
Gain insight into your website's performance in Google's search engine results pages by utilizing Search Console. Following an update, be sure to examine any notifications or warnings for your site that might suggest specific issues identified by Google.
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When using GSC, be on the lookout for abrupt and unforeseen declines in performance. The primary areas to investigate are any decreases in impressions or click-throughs. If you notice a decline in impressions, focus your attention on identifying which pages and queries were impacted. Determine if only certain pages or queries experienced a decrease or if it affected everything across the board. Additionally, also make sure that these drops and declines in performance and traffic coincide with any recent updates made to your site. This can provide valuable insights into what elements of your website were most influenced by the new SEO updates.
Identifying Shortcomings in Website Content and Technology.
After analyzing the issues, dive deeper and correlate every data and specifics with the timeline of the updates. Once the issues are identified, evaluate whether they are related to content quality and relevance, technical SEO, or both. When assessing content quality, take into account aspects such as originality, comprehensiveness, and user interaction. Ask yourself, does your content offer distinctive value that goes beyond what is already available on the internet? Is it unique and informative? Interesting?
To achieve a comprehensive and detailed assessment, review each and every aspect of your website. Analyze the site structure, internal linking strategy, mobile responsiveness, and speed of each page along with technical aspects such as Core Web Vitals. Google offers valuable tools like PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse to facilitate this analysis.
Tips and Tricks to Recover from the Latest Google Update:
Depending on the severity of the issues and the website's content strategy, it may take several months to a year to undergo the recovery process. In this period, Google undertakes a complex process of assessing the site's quality on the web by monitoring noteworthy modifications.
To tackle the issue of substandard or unsolicited content, website proprietors must concentrate on crafting unique and superior-quality material that enhances user experience while abiding by Google's standards. This entails refraining from duplicating existing content, overloading it with keywords, and incorporating junk backlinks.
Furthermore, it is crucial to consistently oversee and rectify technical problems, boost security measures, and guarantee optimal user satisfaction.
Correcting website errors, optimizing loading speed, and ensuring compatibility across various devices are all part of the process. By tackling technical issues in this way, a more seamless and user-friendly experience can be provided on the site which will eventually lead to an upswing in traffic volume.
How to Deal with the Future Google Updates to remain relevant on the Search engine Algorithms:
The bottom line is that dealing with the future Google updates to remain relevant on the search engines is tedious but extremely necessary. Thus, stay informed and updated about the latest Google SEO updates and search engine algorithms. Consistently review and update your content by updating statistics and insights to keep the content engaging and relevant. Take feedback from your users to give your content an added emotional touch and depth. Review the Google SEO algorithm changes and Google Algorithm history to improve the ranking of your content. You can also use social media and email marketing to increase your website traffic sources. By utilizing this tactic you’ll gain more stability in web traffic and have other options except organic website traffic to rely on.
Always remember you can never go wrong if you write organically. Human content is best, use AI for research and finding information but do not use it, for generating your web content overall. As you can see the recent Google SERP update has removed low-quality AI content and things will only get more strict from here on. Focus on your target audience, provide them with honest and authentic solutions, quote the experts and you will never fall down the SERP ladder again.