The Impact of Google's Core Update of March 2024 on Niche Sites

Intro

In March 2024, Google rolled out a significant update to its search algorithm, known as the Core Update of March 2024. This update primarily targeted low-quality content and AI-generated spam, with the clear goal of improving the quality of search results and penalizing sites that do not meet the new standards. Many owners of smaller specialized affiliate sites have already been affected by the Helpful Content Update (HCU) of September 2023. They were awaiting the March update to correct some of the poor results caused by Google's updates in 2023. However, this does not seem to have happened, even though the update has been ongoing for more than 50 days and ended on April 19, 2024.

Impact on Niche Sites

Previous updates have boosted many spam-like strategies, such as the bulk creation of AI content and parasitic SEO of various types. Large authoritative sites like Forbes have taken over the rankings of smaller and more specialized niche sites for all kinds of searches. Google has tried to solve some of the issues in this update, but the overall impression is that little has changed in SERP.

The update did have a profound impact on niche sites, especially those heavily reliant on AI-generated content. Google's initiative led to the de-indexing of hundreds of sites in the early stages, targeting those characterized by low-quality content and AI-generated spam. This measure affected not only the visibility of these sites but also their organic search traffic and advertising revenue, with more than 800 websites completely removed from Google's search index. Ultimately, however, it appears that the so-called Spam update might be nothing more than a series of manual actions against people who boasted on Twitter, as many other AI driven sites continue to thrive.

Deeper Insights into the Update Google introduced new spam policy measures with this update, targeting three main areas: abuse of scaled content, site reputation abuse, and abuse of expired domains. These measures are intended to combat manipulation of search rankings through unethical SEO practices. The focus was also on Google's E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness) principles, which now play a crucial role in evaluating the quality and credibility of content. However, the impact is yet to be felt more broadly, as many expired domains that may have once been hacked are still ranking with dead pages, while Reddit and Quora simply soared.

Recovery and Adjustment Strategies

So far, there is speculation that on page engagement can help, but nothing conclusive. What we know is that from now on brand recognition will definitely be helpful in ranking and given the excessive impact that authority on rankings.

Just building a website like everyone else does and not offering extra value will not work.

It's time for SEOs to focus on building brands. Brands mean that there is a value beyond content and a list of products. In most cases, this can mean a community or extra good reviews that become standard in the industry. It could also mean many other things, depending on the niche. Something everyone can do will now be harder to rank.

Another strategy is diversifying traffic sources. Publish on YouTube, create social media communities, email lists, and Pinterest pins. All of this will also make building a brand in the eyes of Google easier.

Case Studies and Industry Responses

The response from the SEO community is mixed, with some concerned about the sudden loss of traffic and others seeing the update as a necessary step in cleaning up the web. For example, affiliate niche sites like Ling's Cars and Tyler Vigen's site showed varied effects, emphasizing the unpredictable nature of such updates. These case studies reveal that while some sites suffered significant setbacks, others managed to adapt and recover quickly, often by shifting their content strategies to more original and high-quality content.

Valentijn Kroos, who works for a Dutch casino affiliate website nieuwe-casinos.net, said that although his website has been quite stable over the past 12 months, he is still concerned for the future since competitors using authoritative domains in tech and gaming to boost authority for their casino content are taking over the SERPs and it's unclear whether Google will do anything despite promising to clean it up on May 5.

The strongest positive story is Reddit. The site has seen incredible growth. Many attribute this to Google's secret gem systems that are coming online and pushing the experience of real people forward. This has also pushed a lot of bad or even illegal advice to the top of the SERPs. It's also highly suspicious that this happened at the time Google reached a deal with Reddit about using their data to train their AI models.

Conclusion

Google's Core Update of March 2024 serves as a reminder of the ever-evolving nature of search engine algorithms and the ongoing need for webmasters to adapt their SEO checklist to these changes. By focusing on Google's guidelines and concentrating on high-quality, valuable content, site owners can only hope to recover from current penalties but also future-proof their sites against upcoming updates. Most likely it will not happen. A complete overhaul of the strategy is needed: migrate to a more authoritative domain, start a brand or build brand signals, and if legit way doesn’t work, engage in a massive bot driven spam operation built on top of expired domains.