Google releases its new update, called the March 2024 core update. This update will take a month to completely roll out.
Purpose: This 2024 March core update is intended to enhance search quality by displaying less clickbait-like content and more content that users perceive as valuable.
Note: The March 2024 core update has a higher level of complexity compared to Google’s usual core updates.
This update involves changes to various core systems, and the helpful content system is now part of the core updates.
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Official Announcement on Google March 2024 Core Update
Google officially confirmed the march 2024 core update on its twitter handle as well as on Google Search Status Dashboard.
Today we announced the March 2024 core update & new spam policies that, in combination, are designed to show less content made to attract clicks and more content that people find useful. Learn more: https://t.co/wQVZ8mExRB
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) March 5, 2024
Quick Facts on Google March 2024 Core Update
- Title: Google March 2024 Core Update
- Release Date: March 5, 2024
- Rollout Duration: It will take a month to fully roll out.
- Global Update: It will impact all languages and regions.
- Targets: It looks like it will target all types of content.
- Penalty: It is not a penalty; instead, it promotes and rewards high-quality web pages.
- Impact: Google stated that this update will lead to a 40% decrease in low-quality, unoriginal, and unhelpful content appearing in its search results.
Detailed Analysis of March 2024 Core Update
Google has announced one important change aimed at enhancing the quality of search results and the helpfulness of results:
Improved quality ranking
One of the primary objectives of the March 2024 Core Update is to improve Google’s ranking systems.
Elizabeth Tucker, Director of Product for Search at Google, said, “We’re making algorithmic enhancements to our core ranking systems to ensure we surface the most helpful information on the web and reduce unoriginal content in search results.”
Since 2022, Google has been actively working to diminish unhelpful and unoriginal content, with the March 2024 update further advancing these endeavors.
Helpful Content Update Is Now Part Of The Core Updates
Yes, you heard it right, HCU, is now a part of the core ranking system.
She further stated
“This update involves refining some of our core ranking systems to help us better understand if webpages are unhelpful, have a poor user experience or feel like they were created for search engines instead of people. This could include sites created primarily to match very specific search queries.”
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%.
The enhanced ranking systems will more effectively recognize whether webpages offer increased helpfulness, improved user experiences, or appear to be primarily tailored for search engines rather than human users.
New FAQ Page
Google has released a new FAQ page to assist creators in comprehending these changes.
Note:
Also, Chirs Nelson added that there is “nothing new or special that creators need to do for this update as long as they’ve been making satisfying content meant for people. For those that might not be ranking as well, we strongly encourage reading our creating helpful, reliable, people-first content help page.”
Tracking Tools On March 2024 Core Update:
Here’s the initial data from the tools (please note that it will take some time for this update to fully roll out)
Other Updates
- Google November 2023 Core Update Finished Rolling Out
- Google Rolls Out November 2023 Core Update
- Google October 2023 Core Algorithm Update Is Done Rolling Out
- September 2023 Helpful Content Update Rolled Out
- Google September 2023 Helpful Content Update
- Google Releases August 2023 Core Update
- Social Media Image Posting Sizes Guidelines For 2023
- Learn New Ways To Use ChatGPT For SEO
- Is Fresh Content A Google Ranking Factor?
In Summary
Since this update is complex, its implementation may span over a month.
Expect greater ranking fluctuations compared to regular core updates as various systems undergo full updates and reinforce each other.
