What Happened in March

March saw big changes in Google’s functioning. Along with the new Spam Update, there was also the release of the March 2024 Core Update. An understanding of the nature and purpose of these updates will make working within the new parameters easier.

The Spam Update:

• Name: Google March 2024 Spam Update
• Launch: First part- week beginning March 5 and Second part- Week beginning May 5. Both rollouts should take about 2 weeks to complete
• Objectives: General search spam along with scaled content, expired domain abuse, and in the second part, site reputation abuse that techniques that are not in line with Google spam policies will be penalized.

It is important to understand what is meant by  Scaled Content Abuse Spam. Google defines it as “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.”

The Core Update:

• Name: Google March 2024 Broad Core Update
• Launch: 5 March
• Objectives: All types of content will be scrutinized. There are no penalties. Good web pages will be rewarded/promoted. Google expects it to result in a 40% reduction in unoriginal/low-quality and unhelpful material appearing in search results.

What Google Tracking Tools Say

SERPmetrics, Semrush, Cognitive SEO, Accuranker and other third-party rank-tracking tools showed the uncertainty that both webmasters and searchers felt. Wincher, Mangools, and SimilarWeb all showed limited volatility but others like Semrush, Advanced Web Rankings, SERPmetrics and Algoroo all showed major volatility and fluctuations.

Also Read: Google Ranking Algorithm Updates – February 2024

What the SEO Community and Webmasters Say

A poll on X (Twitter) on 7 March showed that about 75% of those responding felt that the updates would not be effective in removing unhelpful content and spam. Over the next few weeks uncertainty and disappointment were the main sentiments of webmasters. The comments included:

• My content (for a specific category) disappeared seemingly entirely during this update.
• My site also experienced a significant drop.
• In India, despite TikTok being banned, searches frequently return results including the TikTok keyword, often appearing on the first or second page. Many of these links lead to adware sites, which upon clicking, redirect users to inappropriate adult content or other advertising sites.
• Traffic is terrible this morning. Google vs spammers battle is more intense than ever. And they are not using precision munitions either. They are dropping nukes. Collateral damage is immense. Spammers are changing tactics. Reddit, Medium, LinkedIn Pulse are turning into Blogspot-style spam dumps. The quality of search continues to steadily decline. It’s Spamaggeddon!
• Google Is killing It. Now even the last drops get squeezed out of my Site. It’s hard to believe to see some drastic changes happening in the next weeks.
• I had 50% of our network wiped out over 6/7 March. I saw 10% have a moderate recovery on 10 March.

 What Next?

As of the last week of March, the 14-day Spam Update was completed, but the Core Update was still underway. Google advised that people wait for the Core Update to complete before making any changes to their sites. However, content modifications can continue as these are not affected by the Update.

It appears that both the Spam and Core Updates are now done deals and the online world will have to not just accept the new operational parameters but will have to modify both websites and content to make them more attractive to Google. In most cases, no drastic modifications will be required, but it may be better to wait for a week or two before making any changes. Hopefully, the situation will stabilize in April so and any major changes that may be needed to bring webpages in like with the new Google policies can then be begun.

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