Google March 2024 Update Hit Your Traffic? Here's How to Recover

As we all know, Google rolled out a significant update in March 2024 aimed at improving search result quality. This two-pronged approach involves a core algorithm update and a refresh of their spam policies. Let’s take an overlook on the same, also let's see what this means for website owners, SEOs, web developers, etc. and how to ensure your site avoids getting hit.

Quick Overview:

Core Update Targets Low-Quality Content:

Google's core ranking systems received an upgrade to better identify unhelpful content. This includes content that offers a poor user experience, is unoriginal, or seems primarily designed to please search engines rather than human readers. Websites with thin content, repetitive keyword stuffing, or misleading information are more likely to be impacted.

New Spam Policies Address Deceptive Tactics:

Three new spam policies were introduced:

1)?Site reputation abuse: This tackles low-quality content that tries to leverage the credibility of established websites.

2)?Expired domain abuse: This targets website using expired domains to host low-quality content and potentially mislead users.

3)?Scaled content abuse: This combats automatically generated content or content produced at scale with minimal human oversight, often lacking value for users.

Expected Outcome: More Helpful Search Results

Google anticipates this update will significantly reduce low-quality and unoriginal content in search results, potentially by up to 40%.

This means users can expect to find more helpful and trustworthy information when searching on Google.

What Website Owners and SEOs Can Do:

On-Page SEO:

1. Create High-Quality, Unique, and Helpful Content For Users: Focus on informative, well-written content relevant to your target audience's needs. Avoid generic content; instead, create specific content focused on your products or services. Utilize various content formats like tables, charts, infographics, or videos to enhance user experience (UX) and information presentation. Ensure clear website navigation and structure for easy crawling and user experience.
2. Optimize Content for Search Engines: Conduct keyword research to identify relevant terms users search for related to your content. Naturally integrate these keywords throughout your content but avoid keyword stuffing. Craft compelling meta descriptions that accurately summarize your page content and entice users to click. Eliminate duplicate meta descriptions across your website.
3. Build Expertise and Trust: Showcase industry expertise by incorporating insights from recognized authors or thought leaders in your content. Consider interviews, guest posts, or original research papers (white papers) to establish your brand authority. Encourage and showcase positive customer reviews and testimonials to build trust with potential customers.

Sense-check your poorly performing pages against Google’s relevance questions:

Google has a list of questions that it encourages you to ask yourself when trying to improve content that has been affected by a core update.

The ones that focus on improving content quality and relevance are as follows:

a)?Does the content provide original information, reporting, research, or analysis?

b)?Does the content provide a substantial, complete, or comprehensive description of the topic?

c)?Does the content provide insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond the obvious?

d) If the content draws on other sources, does it avoid simply copying or rewriting those sources, and instead provide substantial additional value and originality?

e)?Does the main heading or page title provide a descriptive, helpful summary of the content?

f)?Does the main heading or page title avoid exaggerating or being shocking in nature?

g) Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?

h)?Would you expect to see this content in or referenced by a printed magazine, encyclopaedia, or book?

i)?Does the content provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?

j)?Does the content have any spelling or stylistic issues?

k) Is the content produced well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?

l)?Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?

Source: Google’s guide to creating helpful, reliable, people-first content

When it comes to improving the authority of a page or post, there are generally two things to look at: ‘on-page’ authority and ‘off-page’ authority.

Improve On-Page Authority.

When we talk about on-page authority, we're referring to how much we can trust the content by itself.

• Google actually tells us quite a bit about what they consider trustworthy content. In their Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines document, they go into detail about the traits associated with authoritative content.

This document outlines a set of benchmarks called 'Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness' (or 'E-E-A-T') that help us figure out if a page is a trustworthy source of information on a specific topic.

E-E-A-T:

o Important for Quality: E-E-A-T is a core principle in Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines, used by human evaluators to assess search results. High E-E-A-T content is seen as more trustworthy and valuable.

o?Signals Matter: While E-E-A-T itself isn't measured, Google's algorithm likely uses various signals that indicate E-E-A-T, such as author credentials, website reputation, and backlinks from high-quality sources.

Key takeaways for improving the authority of a page or post are as follows:

a) Make sure the content is on a secure website (with 'https').

b)?Clearly show writer/author of the content and provide a link to their bio, which should mention their expertise and experience, works, projects, etc.

c)?Ensure that the main content is thorough, accurate, well-written, and easy to understand.

d) Try to have content created by well-known writers or journalists with a good reputation in respective fields.

e) Support the content with references to original/actual sources, preferably with clickable links.

f)?Do research on the topic when possible and include citations(Sources).

g) Have an 'About' page and make sure the contact information is easy to find.

h) Clearly highlight any awards, credentials, or qualifications related to profession/work/business.

Google has published a set of questions to help you determine if there are any authority / quality issues

“We suggest focusing on ensuring you’re offering the best content you can. That’s what our algorithms seek to reward.”

Source: Google Search Central

Off-Page SEO:

1) Link Building:

o Focus on getting high-quality/high-authority backlinks from relevant and reputable websites.

o?Backlinks act as votes of confidence for your site in Google's eyes. But make sure you get the considerable ones.

o?Avoid manipulative link-building schemes that violate Google's policies.

Google's John Mueller said:

Guest posting for links results in unnatural links. Says Google already devalues them.

2) Public Relations (PR) and Online Reputation Management:

o?Develop and maintain a strong online presence by strategically reaching out to relevant websites for guest blogging or media mentions.

o?This can generate organic traffic and improve brand awareness.

o?Address negative reviews promptly and professionally to maintain a positive online presence with reputation.

Improve Off-Page Authority:

Google doesn't just rely on a page's content to decide if it's trustworthy; it also considers how much other pages trust it.

If you've seen a drop in traffic to a specific page, take a closer look at its backlinks to make sure:

• It has plenty of links from reliable websites.
• There are no strange or unnatural links pointing to it.

If a piece of content doesn't have many links pointing to it, you might want to think about reaching out to other websites and doing some 'white-hat' link building outreach and online PR to improve its link profile. If you notice a bunch of weird links pointing to a page causing issues, try to get rid of them or use Google's disavow tool to tell Google not to count them.

Gary Illyes (Keynote speech, Brighton SEO)

"If you publish high-quality content that is highly cited on the internet — and I’m not talking about just links, but also mentions on social networks and people talking about your branding…then you are doing great."

Some More Essentials:

• Mobile-Friendliness:?Ensure your website is mobile-friendly, as Google prioritizes mobile-optimized experiences.
• Website Speed:?Maintain a fast-loading website to improve user experience and SEO performance.
• Technical SEO:?Address technical SEO issues like Core Web Vitals(INP, LCP, CLS), broken links, crawling errors, or sitemap optimization.
• Stay Updated:?Keep yourself informed about the latest Google updates and SEO best practices to maintain good standing.

Note: Consider waiting for the Roll-Out to complte fully, before making any Major changes to your websites.

By implementing these strategies, you can create a website that attracts organic traffic, builds trust with users, and avoids penalties from Google's core updates and spam policies.