How’s your website doing in terms of organic traffic?
You may want to go and check on it.
In early March, Google announced a new major update to its core search ranking algorithm aimed at increasing the quality of search results and reducing unoriginal spam.
The result?
Tons of SEOs have seen their organic traffic slashed, and hundreds of websites have been deindexed.
If you’ve been hit or are wondering how to avoid becoming the next casualty in this chaos, you’ve come to the right place.
Here’s what I’ve got for you:
- The March 2024 Google Core Update – A Summary
- Helpful Content – Google’s New Ranking System
- Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EEAT)
- The AI Connection – What This Update Means For AI Content Generation
- What Should You Do Next?
- Work With A Partner You Can Trust
The March 2024 Google Core Update – A Summary
One of the things you may be wondering right now is, “How did this happen?” The answer has to do with artificial intelligence, content, and Google’s user experience.
Since 2022, Google has (along with you and I) seen a sharp decline in the quality of its search results. Spammy, unoriginal content, either generated by AI engines or poorly written by half-hearted humans, has started to dominate the listings. Google’s response has been to release several major updates to try to counteract the prevalence of unhelpful or unoriginal content. The latest of these has been the March 2024 Google Core Update.
According to Google, “this core update is more complex than our usual core updates.” At its heart, this update is focused on achieving five main goals:
- Reduce low-quality results
- Fight against spam in search
- Prevent scaled content abuse
- Stop site reputation abuse
- End expired domain abuse
The first three goals focus primarily on the same thing – content quality. The third goal, in particular, has been a major challenge for Google in recent years. AI chatbots like ChatGPT have made it easy for companies and website owners to generate tons of poor content every single month, tricking the algorithm into thinking they had substance and authority.
However, Google has also made it clear that it is not only targeting AI usage. Human-written content that makes “little or no sense to a reader but contains search keywords” is also considered spam under Google’s new policies.
They’re taking a harsh stance against these practices. Unfortunately, as things continue to be tweaked over the course of this month, it’s likely that even those not participating in spam will still get caught in the crossfire.
Google expects this update to take a month or more to roll out fully and hopes to reduce unhelpful content by 40%.
But what exactly makes content “helpful”?
Helpful Content – Google’s New Ranking System
In order to adapt and survive with these Google core updates, we need to understand Google’s definition of “helpful” content. This is a new approach to ranking that Google started working on in 2022. Simply put, the goal is to give higher rankings to content that is created for people, not search engines.
The first element of helpfulness is quality. Google is looking for original content that has the answers their users are looking for. They want rich content that provides substantial value. The highest quality content is the “sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend.” Of course, grammar, style, and sloppiness will also be evaluated when determining a piece of content’s helpfulness.
Specific pieces of content are evaluated for their quality and factual accuracy. However, that’s not the only factor to consider. Google also emphasizes the importance of the overall page experience – the context in which the content is delivered. The new systems and algorithms look at understanding the kind of audience you have and whether or not your content is relevant to that audience. Google considers content that is consistent with a specific purpose to be more helpful than websites with no focus.
Finally, content that has been specifically created to increase search engine ranking is explicitly defined as unhelpful by Google’s policy changes. Any posts or content that is too keyword-dense, relies too heavily on automation, or is too generic will be flagged as low-quality and receive a lower ranking.
One of the key concepts to know when making great content that is helpful for people and will rank well in Google is called EEAT. Let’s break it down.
If you want to take a deep dive into Google’s concept of helpful content, check out this docs page, complete with self-assessment questions and practical suggestions.
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EEAT)
Google uses EEAT as a central component in its Search Quality Rater Guidelines. Search quality raters are employees whom Google trains to assess the quality of content in search results.
It’s not a part of the algorithm itself, but it does give us a better understanding of what Google is looking for when it comes to ranking sites.
Experience (E)
Firstly, Google has put a renewed emphasis on first-hand experience. Content that is written by authors who have experienced what they are writing about is more likely to do well on Google. The example that many people use here is the difference between a review from someone who has actually used a product vs. someone who hasn’t but still wrote a “review.”
Expertise (E)
Expertise relates more to professional competence than personal experience. This is particularly important in professional fields like legal, medical, or safety. Google wants to see certifications and evidence that you are qualified to create content that is valuable and informative. Credentials are critical, but Google will also look for other evidence that you know how to do what you are writing about. For instance, pictures of a baker’s culinary creations demonstrate the baker’s skills, even if they don’t have qualifications listed.
Authoritativeness (A)
How many websites are linking back to your content and sharing it with their audiences? Google evaluates the quality of your pages, in part, based on the quality and number of backlinks you have from other sites. Once you demonstrate that you have experience and expertise, they look to others to help determine your authority.
Trustworthiness (T)
Google’s users want information from trusted, human sources. Trustworthiness is evaluated in a number of ways. For instance, is the website owner’s contact information accessible and accurate? Can you easily find relevant information like returns policies or shipping policies? Websites that engage in manipulation, such as hiding advertising relationships, making unsupported claims, or concealing negative reviews, are more likely than not to receive low trustworthiness ratings from Google’s raters.
Ultimately, because the details of Google’s algorithm are not shared with us, there is some disagreement in the SEO world about the importance of EEAT ratings. You may fall in one camp or the other on this topic. However, we can all agree that they are best practices. Following them will increase the quality of your content and improve the user experience.
The AI Connection – What This Update Means For AI Content Generation
Ian Nutall is a top SEO who tracks the indexing of 49,345 websites. On Friday, March 8th, he posted on X that 837 of those websites had been deindexed. This caused a stir in an SEO community that has already been shaken up by the abnormal volatility in their search traffic this month.
A few days later, Nutall posted that 21 of those sites had been reindexed, so it’s possible that others may be reindexed as well over the course of this month.
However, a recent study uncovered a common similarity across all the sites that have been penalized by Google this March.
Originality, the company behind the well-known AI content detector, ran a study of 79,000 websites this March. Out of these, 1,446 websites had a “manual action” applied to them.
A “manual action” refers to when a human employee at Google flags a site for violating its policies and manually penalizes it by removing it entirely from Google search (deindexing it).
Of these 1,446 websites, 100% had posts and content that was AI-generated, and 50% had 90%-100% of their posts AI-generated.
Here’s a quote from Jonathan Gillham, CEO of Originality.AI:
“The risk of AI-generated spam overwhelming Google search results is an existential threat to Google. This seems to be a clear attempt by Google not just to punish but also make a statement about their view on AI-generated spam.”
In summary, content creators and SEOs need to be very careful about how and when they use AI-generated content to support their websites. If your site has recently taken a hit in organic traffic or even received a manual action, read through the notes. You may find that you’ve been flagged for overuse of AI.
Use AI, Don’t Abuse AI
Ultimately, Google wants to create a great experience for its users. AI can be an advantage or a hindrance to this. Formally, Google has made it clear that it doesn’t deprioritize AI content by default. Artificial intelligence can be very useful for a number of processes in content creation and SEO. However, virtually all AI content needs to be edited by a human being in order to be high enough quality to be effective.
In the past, AI chatbots weren’t good enough to get to first base. Their output was patently robotic, stiff, and limited in its value. Newer, modern systems like OpenAI’s chatGPT are much better at imitating a human voice. However, they are still not good enough to handle all aspects of content creation on their own. AI output can be just as good as human output but often needs editing for factual accuracy, uniqueness, and overall quality.
Output generated by machines can often sound simplistic or shallow. You need to make sure your content is deep and fact-rich. Go through the structure of the article to make sure it flows well. You may also want to add links for SEO and to back up your claims. By editing your AI content carefully, you can ensure that you use AI instead of abusing it.
This is critical for making it through this month’s ups and downs.
What Should You Do Next?
The first thing to do is take a deep breath and don’t panic. Google’s update months are always volatile, but just remember that things tend to stabilize when the dust settles.
Google specifically states, “There’s nothing new or special that creators need to do for this update as long as they’ve been making satisfying content meant for people.” If you have already been ranking well and have been relying on high-quality content to do so, you don’t really have anything to worry about. All we need to do is follow best practices and create helpful content.
Now, it’s possible your site may get caught up in this unjustifiably. This already appears to have happened to a number of people in the SEO space. If it does happen, all you can do is wait it out. Things are going to go up and down until Google finishes rolling this out.
On the other hand, if you have been relying heavily on AI to try to game the system and generate large amounts of fast content, don’t expect anything good to come from this. Google’s latest update seems to be taking no prisoners, and violations of its policies around scaled content abuse and spam are being taken very seriously right now.
The safest bet is to change your content creation, editing, and management policies and focus on creating people-first content. Incorporate EEAT signals and focus on making your website the best source of answers for Google’s users.
Fortunately, you don’t have to tackle all this alone.
Work With A Partner You Can Trust
Together, I and the amazing team of writers I work with at the Content Cucumber have created thousands of high-quality articles and written millions of words for businesses in virtually every industry. We can help you succeed through the ups and downs of Google’s updates.
We are well-versed in creating content that ranks well and editing AI content to improve its quality and performance. However, here at the Content Cucumber, serving our clients is about more than just writing or editing content. It’s about becoming a partner who can help you achieve your SEO goals. That’s why we always do in-depth research to create content in your unique voice that is rich with value for your readers.
If you’re looking for a way to scale up your content output without sacrificing quality, reach out to us today!