Google's March 2024 Core Update: Keep it real, keep it human!

Over the past 10 years, Google has updated its search algorithm 76 times. A little over half of them came out in 2020 and later. Google is on a roll when it comes to updating its search algorithms! The recent March 2024 Core Update is expected to shake things up in SEO, marketing and beyond. I think it's important to know what Google wants from businesses and marketers. Let's check it out…

Understanding the Google's March 2024 Core Update

Google has always focused on high-quality content to make the digital journey of an average user effective, helpful, and short. That's why Google's search algorithm keeps getting updated over the years. The Google's March 2024 Core Update is no different. This is Google's way of minimizing spam and tackling low-quality content.

Before we get into how Google aims to reduce visibility of unhelpful, low-quality content, let's understand what qualifies as unhelpful and low-quality. This means content that doesn't provide helpful information related to the search terms or has weak repetitive content to increase keyword density. It should also have originality, as in, a clear point of view.

Google has developed keyword ranking systems for identifying web pages with content that's helpful to users in a user-friendly way. Using this approach, they're aiming to reduce unhelpful content by 40%, which might also de-index websites completely.

Furthermore, the latest update tackles three types of malpractices - site reputation abuse, expired domain abuse, and scale content abuse. Let's take a look at them one by one. Google noticed that some websites are misusing their site reputation by placing ads that don't match the domain their website is about. For example, a website with content about industrial machinery has affiliate ads to sell kids’ books. Yes, it sounds absurd, but it happens a lot. Many sites build reputations over time by publishing content regularly around a particular domain. After that, they push affiliate links for products that have nothing to do with their site. Because it misleads the user, Google intends to crack down on this abuse of traffic.

The next malpractice that the latest Google update focuses on is misusing expired domains. This is related to the reputation issue I talked about earlier. It's not uncommon for the domain of an old website with a great online reputation to expire or get sold. The new owner decides to push its own content leveraging the old domain's rankings and traffic. For instance, someone made a blog about women's clothing accessories. After running the blog successfully for a few years, she decides to sell it to the highest bidder. As soon as the new owner takes over, he starts selling sunglasses for men with new website with that old domain. This is abusing the domain's reputation. In this update, Google's going to make sure such websites get low rankings.

Lastly, we have the issue of scaling content without focusing on its quality and helpfulness. The rate at which content is generated and published online is insane. Eventually, it catches up to even the most thoughtful content marketers. The whole marketing strategy goes out the window when the competition doubles or triples down on content. B2C or B2B, the challenge is real.

As a result, many businesses churn out content even if it's not helpful to their audience. It becomes an invisible race for high rankings and traffic. These companies have been using AI-powered tools like ChatGPT and Rytr to win, no matter what the cost. With this latest update, Google reminds us that high-quality and relevant content reigns supreme. When Google finds your content doesn't help users find what they're looking for, it will penalize it and drop your ranking.

What does that mean for SEO and overall marketing strategies?

It's a no-brainer that this update will affect rankings of sites that follow the practices, rather the malpractices I mentioned in the previous section. This won't just waste the SEO efforts of such websites, it will probably make them work harder to recover. Time, effort, and associated costs are at stake here.

Marketing strategies need to be updated and re-aligned to make sure they comply with the updated policies. It means creating content that makes your site the go-to source for your specific domain knowledge. It's important to have strong content on your site that conveys authority.

It should demonstrate experience and expertise that draws from a real-world understanding of the subject. Content with technical knowledge, real testimonials, and compliance with accepted web security standards like SSL and HTTPS will make your content look trustworthy.

Most marketers know how important these factors are. For the most part, they focus on creating authoritative, trustworthy content. They understand how important it is from an SEO perspective and for building a strong digital brand. This brings us to AI's relevance.

Where does AI fit in, and what marketers need to focus on?

This focus on relevance and scale content abuse seems like Google's attack on AI-generated content. We can assume that to some extent. When it comes to generating content, AI is pretty good at coming up with stuff that's relevant to the domain. Where it starts to get into trouble with Google is that it mostly rephrases the content it has been trained on. It's not bringing a new perspective. That content will be seen as spam by Google since it's not truly helpful.

Having said that, AI won't disappear from marketing strategies anytime soon. It's likely to continue to help marketers with content ideas, outlines, baseline content, social media calendars, and everything else.

This Core Update demands that businesses, content creators, and marketers keep the human factor in mind. As long as you keep the human perspective in mind when you write content for your website, it'll stay relevant. This means including expert-driven content. The perspective of people with deep knowledge about a topic. Including user or subject matter expert interviews based on first-hand experience. Even if you're talking about a topic your competitors are talking about a lot, this will make your content stand out.

If you customize the content, check the facts, include quotes from experts, and follow your brand's tone and voice, you can still use AI for content production. Basically, your content should have a genuine perspective, tone, and voice. By humanizing AI-generated content, you automatically add in a certain level of emotion that makes it more authentic.

As we look at the Core Update from this angle, it seems like Google is pushing for 3 core principles:

• do not abuse the reputation of your website or an older domain by posting unhelpful content or selling unrelated stuff;

• scale content, with or without AI, as long as it reflects real-world experiences to support users' information discovery;

• keep it real, trustworthy, and human.

Google's update re-emphasizes the long-term thinking behind content marketing. In the short term, it might or might not deliver business value. In the long run, it'll bring a reliable, trustworthy digital brand grounded in genuine human experiences. And it'll bring conversions, too!

This whole conversation has another subtle angle, user intent. We tend to think of search as something constant. The truth is, it varies a lot. Everyone has a different reason for searching. If you search for "black shoe", it could mean something different to a man, woman, boy, or girl. For example, it could mean a shoe kids have to wear in school or a formal shoe a person wears at work. The context of a search online changes with time, so does the intent. In this core update, marketers are reminded to make sure their website content aligns with changes in customer behavior.

There's a sense that Google may be de-prioritizing AI and the content it helps marketers create. Actually, Google seems to be asking people not to ignore the human element. In this new age of artificial intelligence, which Google has been at the forefront of bringing to the world, it's heartening to see that its algorithms are being updated to value the human element of marketing and business. It's Google's way of saying "keep it real, keep it human."