What Google’s March 2024 Core Update Means for Your Organization

By Tina Kelly

Google’s search algorithm is both a guiding star and an ongoing frustration for many content marketers. Effective search engine optimization (SEO) is often a cornerstone of content strategies, but sudden updates can quickly turn content that used to follow best practices into a negative ranking factor.

Google’s March 2024 core update was one of the largest and most complex ones the company has ever launched. It took 45 days to roll out and multiple core systems were updated.

Analyzing how this core update will impact sites and how the Helpful Content Update (HCU) was ultimately integrated (or not integrated) will take more time and more data to uncover. However, the March 2024 core update, much like the HCU, was designed to reward content that is useful to humans. To create helpful, high-ranking content, watch out for these three missteps.

1. Faking Freshness

Repackaging or refreshing content can increase exposure, drive engagement and increase your content output without straining your resources. When done well, a thoughtful 2022 trend piece can be updated for 2024 without losing its search value. But content creators beware: Low-effort content refreshes won’t only fail to improve performance, they could also actively hurt your website overall.

Quick fixes like updating publish dates without substantial content changes or adding or deleting large portions of content for the express purpose of making your website seem fresh will not boost your site’s rankings. Google’s recommended self-assessment asks:

• “Are you changing the date of pages to make them seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed?”
• “Are you adding a lot of new content or removing a lot of older content primarily because you believe it will help your search rankings overall by somehow making your site seem ‘fresh?’”

2. Fudging Authority

Google has been pushing for experience, expertise, authority and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) since the 2018 Medic Update, which required extra levels of care when writing about topics including medicine, news, finance and law. In many ways, it makes sense. In the real world, you would seek out an accountant to answer questions about taxes. Online, you should expect a similar level of authority.

All content, but especially medical, legal and financial pieces, needs to display some level of authority. Content should be written or reviewed by an expert or enthusiast who demonstrably knows the topic. And that authorship should be clearly evident on your website. Thorough author bios and clear attribution can go a long way to establish authority under the scrutiny of the new guidelines.

Additionally, the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab compiled 10 guidelines for building web credibility based on three years’ worth of research with over 4,500 participants.

1. Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on your site.
2. Show that there’s a real organization behind your site.
3. Highlight the expertise in your organization and in the content and services you provide.
4. Show that honest and trustworthy people stand behind your site.
5. Make it easy to contact you.
6. Design your site so it looks professional (or is appropriate for your purpose).
7. Make your site easy to use — and useful.
8. Update your site’s content often (or at least show it’s been reviewed recently).
9. Use restraint with any promotional content (e.g., ads, offers).
10. Avoid errors of all types, no matter how small they seem.

3. Writing for Robots

Seemingly from the dawn of Google, marketers have been trying to work the algorithm. And while that’s still important, the search giant is trying to stop us. At its core, the recent core update promotes a user-first content model. Humans don’t need you to repeat keywords, they need information and answers to their questions. When content is written for people rather than the algorithm, value is the priority.

Write content to answer questions, entertain or share expertise with your target audience. Some quick questions to ask yourself before posting content are:

• Is the content aligned with my site and my target audience?
• Does the content actually answer the question it promises to answer?
• Will someone feel like they’ve learned enough to achieve their goal after reading my content?
• Does the content provide original information, analysis or research?

If you can answer these real questions with honest, human answers, then your content strategy is in good shape and your website rankings likely are, too.