Google rolls out new ‘spam’ update – March 2024
At Dental Design, one of the main objectives for the technical team is to keep up to speed with any Google algorithm updates. This ensures our SEO work aligns with Google’s latest best practices, maximising website visibility and organic traffic for our clients. It is also important for us to be in the know, should the Google updates cause any fluctuations with our client’s search engine rankings.
Two weeks ago, Google announced a search update on its official blog https://blog.google/products/search/google-search-update-march-2024/
Reading the article, it’s clear that Google is taking a big swing at low-quality content and spam, and it looks as though that this update the most extensive update of its kind in recent memory.
Here’s what you need to know:
Improving Search Results:
- Smarter Ranking: Google’s ranking systems are getting an upgrade to better identify and surface high-quality, helpful information. This means less unoriginal content cluttering the search results.
- Focus on User Experience: Google wants webpages to be genuinely useful and provide a good user experience. Pages created solely to try and get around search engine algorithms will be less likely to rank well.
- Expected Impact: Google anticipates a 40% reduction in low-quality content, making search results more trustworthy and relevant.
New Weapons Against Spam:
- Updated Spam Policies: Google is tightening its grip on spammy content with new policies targeting specific manipulative tactics.
- Fighting Scaled Content Abuse: Automatically generated content designed to manipulate rankings will face stricter scrutiny, regardless of the method (human or machine). Google aims to eliminate content with little to no value, like pages promising answers but delivering nothing.
- Tackling Site Reputation Abuse: Websites relying on strong reputations to host low-quality content from third parties will be flagged as spam. This prevents users from being misled by seemingly trustworthy sources.
- Addressing Expired Domain Abuse: Buying expired domains solely to boost low-quality content’s ranking will be penalised. This ensures users aren’t tricked into thinking the content is associated with the original trusted site.
Timeline and Takeaways:
- Rollout: The update has begun, with most changes taking effect this week. Website owners have two months to comply with the new site reputation policy otherwise they will see a drop in rankings.
- Google’s Commitment: This update reflects Google’s ongoing dedication to providing high-quality search results. Google will keep working to minimise low-quality content and prioritise informative content that genuinely helps users. Content certainly seems like it is king.
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