With ambitious plans to reduce spammy web content by 40%, we are in for an interesting March 2024 as Google unfolds its next core update.
Core updates are when the Google developer team releases fixes and provides updates to the way Google’s search engine, reads, recognizes, indexes, and ranks our websites and their respective pages.
As to whether your website will be on the right side of this newest March 2024 Core Update…who’s to say for sure?
What Has Been Happening Recently In Search News
With shifts in the past six months (2023-2024) and Google’s Helpful Content Updates (HCUs), we have seen Reddit and Quora take some of the top, featured snippet spots on Google. This was confirmed by the Google team, and recently Google has signed an agreement with Reddit to have access to more of its user-generated answers on its communities and threads via an API.
However, much to the chagrin of users and the internet, we have come to find out that many of the top comments on Reddit are…AI or spam content…because after all, these websites are forums and not devoted websites!
Anecdotally, I tried to look up glass repair options for my car and was given a Reddit thread with wholly unhelpful information. This was the first of many of my searches that left me bewildered. As a Reddit user myself, there is a time and place for Reddit and a time and place for Google’s listings of reputable websites.
I will counter myself and say that all of us thought the same of Wikipedia when it first came out. I wonder if in 2030, we will be citing Reddit in our papers?
March 2024 Core Update Predictions
If I had to guess, the algorithm will be shifted further to help understand the user and whether or not a thread snippet should be shown. Also, Google’s algorithm has gotten better at understanding intent, so if something is more research-based based, Reddit and Quora threads might not show up.
As for AI content, I believe a lot of individuals have been blasting AI content for a hot minute. I will say that also, anecdotally, artificial intelligence-generated content is extremely hit-or-miss. After all, it’s a bot crawling the page and regurgitating something someone else (or another AI program) has already written. This inherently seems spammy.
Trust me, if you are working with AI and SEO tools together, you start to see a lot of watermarks. Such as all the posts you “dive” into these days in a post-ChatGPT -4 world.
What Do You Do If Your Rankings Start To Slip?
Wait and see how this plays out. Please do yourself a favor and do not do anything hasty during a Google Core update. Google’s system goes through a minor shock. Furthermore, your website might go through a minor shock. Continue to utilize strict, white-hat SEO methods and you should still end up more visible on organic search than your competition!
If you have been hit, you can always reach out to matt@optimizevibe.com or use the contact form below.