Google’s March 2024 Algorithm Update — What We’ve Learned

On March 5th, 2024, Google began rolling out an algorithm update that they project will decrease low-quality/unoriginal content in the SERPs by 40%.

Yikes.

If this also makes you bite your fingernails, and/or if you’ve noticed that you’re seeing a decline in traffic, consider implementing the following “dos” and “don’ts”.

TLDR — If you’re using a tool to generate automated content (ChatGPT) and you’re not humanizing it and/or failing to tailor it to your audience or brand, then your website will be penalized.

If you’ve followed Google Algorithm updates for a while, none of these will be surprising. However, I think that us marketers should listen up because if you’re primarily using ChatGPT to generate content, you’re likely putting your site at a disadvantage.

What Website Owners Should Be Doing

User Experience: Ensure you’re offering a great user experience. Google Analytics is on nearly every site these days — Big Brother knows when visitors are abandoning and not engaging with content! This is why on-site metrics matter so much (and this is why heat mapping/session recording software is so helpful).
Quality & Authenticity: Create high-quality content for people/HUMANS, not just search engines. Authenticity and value are the names of the game here. Remember personality? Remember reading an article and going “huh, that’s a neat perspective!”. Google wants to see that.
Compliance: This is a “duh”, but stay up to date with search engine policies and guidelines (or hire someone to do that for you). Subscribe to Google’s “The Keyword” newsletter.
Run Audits Every Month to Ensure Solid Technical SEO: I use Ubersuggest because it’s idiot-proof and provides a quick overview of items you need to fix on a website, ranked by priority and SEO impact. Do this monthly (at least)!

What Website Owners Should Not Be Doing

Engage in Spammy Practices: Tactics aimed at manipulating search rankings, such as using automation to generate low-quality content at scale, will now be considered “Black Hat SEO”.
“Set & Forget” Content: Keep. Your. Content. Fresh. As a part of any SEO strategy, you should allocate time to go into old posts and ensure the links/content/perspective are up to date. If a change has occurred, update it! Some websites even make an “update note” at the top of the article (e.g. “This article was originally published in May of 2023, and since then we’ve learned… so we’ve made some updates to better reflect…).
Misleading Practices: Obviously, don’t mislead users with tactics such as repurposing expired domains to boost search ranking with low-quality content.
Less Relevant To Most | Host Low-Quality Third-Party Content: If you happen to be hosting any third-party content on your website that lacks value or relevance to your website's purpose, nix it immediately.

What Businesses Need to Do Today To Ensure Google Rank Tomorrow

Invest in smart SEO strategies, today.

Remember that Google will keep refining their algorithms, and while we can’t control it, we can control the quality of our websites… so invest in yours today.

Supporting Links:

https://blog.google/products/search/google-search-update-march-2024/

Google’s March 2024 Algorithm Update — What We’ve Learned

On March 5th, 2024, Google began rolling out an algorithm update that they project will decrease low-quality/unoriginal content in the SERPs by 40%.

Yikes.

If this also makes you bite your fingernails, and/or if you’ve noticed that you’re seeing a decline in traffic, consider implementing the following “dos” and “don’ts”.

TLDR — If you’re using a tool to generate automated content (ChatGPT) and you’re not humanizing it and/or failing to tailor it to your audience or brand, then your website will be penalized.

If you’ve followed Google Algorithm updates for a while, none of these will be surprising. However, I think that us marketers should listen up because if you’re primarily using ChatGPT to generate content, you’re likely putting your site at a disadvantage.

What Website Owners Should Be Doing

Quality & Authenticity: Create high-quality content for people/HUMANS, not just search engines. Authenticity and value are the names of the game here. Remember personality? Remember reading an article and going “huh, that’s a neat perspective!”. Google wants to see that.

Compliance: This is a “duh”, but stay up to date with search engine policies and guidelines (or hire someone to do that for you). Subscribe to Google’s “The Keyword” newsletter.

Run Audits Every Month to Ensure Solid Technical SEO: I use Ubersuggest because it’s idiot-proof and provides a quick overview of items you need to fix on a website, ranked by priority and SEO impact. Do this monthly (at least)!

What Website Owners Should Not Be Doing

Engage in Spammy Practices: Tactics aimed at manipulating search rankings, such as using automation to generate low-quality content at scale, will now be considered “Black Hat SEO”.

Misleading Practices: Obviously, don’t mislead users with tactics such as repurposing expired domains to boost search ranking with low-quality content.

Less Relevant To Most | Host Low-Quality Third-Party Content: If you happen to be hosting any third-party content on your website that lacks value or relevance to your website's purpose, nix it immediately.

What Businesses Need to Do Today To Ensure Google Rank Tomorrow

Invest in smart SEO strategies, today.

Remember that Google will keep refining their algorithms, and while we can’t control it, we can control the quality of our websites… so invest in yours today.

INSIGHTIMIZE

Google’s March 2024 Algorithm Update — What We’ve Learned

On March 5th, 2024, Google began rolling out an algorithm update that they project will decrease low-quality/unoriginal content in the SERPs by 40%.

Yikes.

If this also makes you bite your fingernails, and/or if you’ve noticed that you’re seeing a decline in traffic, consider implementing the following “dos” and “don’ts”.

TLDR — If you’re using a tool to generate automated content (ChatGPT) and you’re not humanizing it and/or failing to tailor it to your audience or brand, then your website will be penalized.

If you’ve followed Google Algorithm updates for a while, none of these will be surprising. However, I think that us marketers should listen up because if you’re primarily using ChatGPT to generate content, you’re likely putting your site at a disadvantage.

What Website Owners Should Be Doing

Quality & Authenticity: Create high-quality content for people/HUMANS, not just search engines. Authenticity and value are the names of the game here. Remember personality? Remember reading an article and going “huh, that’s a neat perspective!”. Google wants to see that.

Compliance: This is a “duh”, but stay up to date with search engine policies and guidelines (or hire someone to do that for you). Subscribe to Google’s “The Keyword” newsletter.

Run Audits Every Month to Ensure Solid Technical SEO: I use Ubersuggest because it’s idiot-proof and provides a quick overview of items you need to fix on a website, ranked by priority and SEO impact. Do this monthly (at least)!

What Website Owners Should Not Be Doing

Engage in Spammy Practices: Tactics aimed at manipulating search rankings, such as using automation to generate low-quality content at scale, will now be considered “Black Hat SEO”.

Misleading Practices: Obviously, don’t mislead users with tactics such as repurposing expired domains to boost search ranking with low-quality content.

Less Relevant To Most | Host Low-Quality Third-Party Content: If you happen to be hosting any third-party content on your website that lacks value or relevance to your website's purpose, nix it immediately.

What Businesses Need to Do Today To Ensure Google Rank Tomorrow

Invest in smart SEO strategies, today.

Remember that Google will keep refining their algorithms, and while we can’t control it, we can control the quality of our websites… so invest in yours today.

Google Search in a ChatGPT World — Are Both Needed?

INSIGHTIMIZE