March 2024 Google Core Update: Google to Wipe Out 40% of Spam Content

Google has announced a massive update to its core ranking system and anti-spam policies.

Here are some of the highlights of the March 2024 Core Update:

• Google is rolling out some changes to improve search results and cut down spam content.
• The goal is to remove low-quality, duplicate content from search results by a whopping 40%.
• Its anti-spam policies will now focus on manipulative behavior such as abusing scaled content, third-party site reputation, and expired domains.

So I was sipping coffee this morning, reading through the headlines about the Google Core update, when I chanced upon this post shared by a marketer in the ZimmWriter group:

They lost 10+ niche websites just like that! These websites were built with ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity Pro, and ZimmWriter.

From the comments section, we learn that these are pages with 200 to 1,000 blog posts getting 300-500 visitors per day.

All that time and effort that went into publishing 2-4 articles daily went up in smoke in one fell swoop. 😰

Barely two days after Google announced its March 2024 Core Update, the hammer is already going down.

Should you be scared?

What if your website gets hit? 😰

How do you keep your rankings intact?

These are burning questions from marketers, entrepreneurs, and agencies that are using AI to scale their content.

Let’s dissect these new policies from Google and how they will impact your future strategies.

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Improving the Quality of Search Results

The March 2024 Google Core Update focuses on weeding out low-quality and unoriginal content from search results. This effort is targeting a reduction of 40% in low-quality content cluttering up search results.

Elizabeth Tucker, Google’s Director of Product Management, explains that the update zeroes in on fine-tuning Google’s ranking system and determining whether a website is unhelpful, provides a poor user experience, or is geared more towards search engines than actual people.

Think of it as a digital spring cleaning for the internet. By targeting spam and repetitive content, Google ensures that search results are not only relevant but fresh. But it’s more than just tidying up — it’s about highlighting exceptional websites and giving them the recognition they deserve.

Here’s what Google says:

New Strategies to Combat Spam and Manipulative Behaviors

The core update also introduces three new spam policies specifically targeting site reputation abuse, expired domain abuse, and scaled content abuse. Implementing these steps is key to preserving the authenticity of search outcomes.

Scaled Content Abuse

While Google isn’t necessarily opposed to using AI to scale content, it’s always been firm in its stance against using automation to produce low-quality content at scale for the sole purpose of gaming search rankings.

Here’s what Google says about scaled content abuse:

Site Reputation Abuse

Sites that publish third-party content solely for ranking manipulation now face stricter scrutiny. The aim is to preserve the authenticity of a highly reputable website from bad actors who attempt to piggyback on its reputation.

If third-party, low-value content is created primarily for ranking purposes and lacks close oversight from the website owner, Google will now classify it as spam.

Here’s what Google says about site reputation abuse:

Expired Domain Abuse

A new emphasis is being placed on tackling the misuse of expired domains, a strategy that involves elevating inferior content through websites once recognized for their credibility. This undermines user trust in search results but will be addressed head-on with this update.

Action against such practices ensures only high-quality sites rank highly, benefiting users seeking reliable information online.

Here’s what Google says about expired domain abuse:

Impact on Content Creators and Publishers

Google’s stance has always been clear: your content needs to be helpful to rank in its search results.

Google doesn’t want low-quality, unhelpful, duplicate content that is published for the sole purpose of manipulating search rankings.

What Google wants is content that helps people find real answers or solutions.

If you publish original, helpful, and usable content, then you should never be afraid of Google updates.

Remember when Google added that extra E in E-E-A-T last December 2022? That reflects their focus on stopping the mass spam onslaught.

This is the same focus of Content at Scale: to create helpful, deeply-researched, on-point content.

To achieve this goal, we’ve poured tons of revenue straight back into the development of our tool to build the best SEO AI writer that produces undetectable, humanlike, on-point content that’s ready to publish, StraightOuttaAI.

Learn more about Content at Scale’s RankWell®.

Now that Google has started cracking its whip, it’s time to give your pages some love.

First, find out if you were hit by the Google update.

Here are two ways to do it:

1. Look for your website in Google by typing “site:website.com” and see if you are showing up in the search results.

2. Go to Google Search Console and see if you lost any rankings or got a spam alert. You can find this in the left sidebar, Checking Security & Manual Actions.

If you are safe, what can you do to avoid getting penalized by Google in the future?

Our SEO savant at Content at Scale, Farnaz Kia, has been analyzing content that may be vulnerable to Google’s anti-spam filters. Here are four types of content you should steer clear of:

1. Mass content that’s easily flagged by an AI detector.
2. Fluffy articles that don’t give a clear, straight answer to the search term.
3. Link farms and guest post websites.
4. Websites with poor UX and lots of ads.

To maintain your good standing in search engines, always create content that provides users with immediate/short answers. Stop beating around the bush.

And if you want to continue using an AI writer to produce content at scale, better use an undetectable SEO writer.

If some of your pages have disappeared or lost rankings, you have two months to update your content to make sure it adheres to the March 2024 Core Update.

“Search helps people with billions of questions every day, but there will always be areas where we can improve. We’ll continue to work hard at keeping low-quality content on Search to low levels, and showing more information created to help people.” — Elizabeth Tucker, Director of Product Management at Google