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Google makes periodic tweaks and changes to improve their user experience — but that can have a huge ripple effect for everything online. In this blog post, we explain what the 2024 “Core Update” did, and how it changes things.
When you’re writing content online — content like this blog, for example — it’s important to keep your audience in mind and write content that your audience wants to read. Content that’s engaging, informative, not too long, and generally answers the question the reader came in with.
Often, however, there’s a second thing to keep in mind: writing your content with Google in mind. If you don’t optimize your content for search engines to find, your audience will never find it. So it’s important to learn how the system works.
Over time, however, some outlets get a little too good at writing content for search engines, and the audience experience suffers. Whenever it starts to seem like people are gaming the system, Google pushes “Core Updates” to adjust how search engine results are served.
The latest such update, the March 2024 Core Update, was a big one. In this blog post, we explain what this update was all about, what it’s trying to accomplish, and how it affects those of us trying to do business online. Read on:
Case Study: find out how OKO was able to boost Loop Media’s revenue by 500% — on the first day.
When AI Makes Things Harder
AI content generation can be a real time-saver. But while it is making a lot of honest people’s jobs easier, it’s also making it easier to produce content that isn’t worthwhile, to say the least. Quick, AI-generated content has begun cluttering up search results in recent months, making it harder for users to find useful, relevant content in response to their queries.
One recent scourge has been the proliferation of AI-generated obituaries, designed to capitalize on the wake of searches for the departed’s obit in the wake of their passing. The problem is, many of these AI-generated obituaries have been riddled with errors, and in some cases are written about people who haven’t even died, generating ill-gotten clicks from shocked friends and fans.
It had gotten to the point where many advocated adding “before:2023” to searches, to roll the clock back to before the flood of AI-generated noise. Others were forcing Google to search Reddit exclusively, to get around the results Google presented to user-generated content they found more useful and relevant.
All of this leads to one conclusion: Google searches weren’t natively producing quality content anymore, and users were getting increasingly fed up with it.
The Purpose Of Core Update 2024
Google has a history of updating their algorithm in order to produce better experiences for their users. Previous updates introduced “Core Web Vitals” measurement, which prioritized pages with fast load times and stable designs. Other updates have tried to penalize sites that engaged in “keyword stuffing” or manipulative linking.
In recent years, Google’s emphasis has been on getting people to produce higher-quality content with the audience in mind, instead of trying to manipulate the algorithm.
Google’s 2024 Core Update takes aim at low-quality, AI-generated content. Their stated goal was to reduce “spammy” content by up to 40% with their latest changes, though when the update finished rolling out in April they said it was closer to 45%. That’s a lot of content, and if you’re a publisher, it’s important to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.
What Does The 2024 Core Update Do?
Importantly, the 2024 Core Update does not ban AI-generated content. Google doesn’t have a problem with AI — in fact, after their update was completed they rolled out some AI features on Google themselves, to mixed results.
Instead, Google is focusing on reducing “low-quality” content, whether it was written by a generative tool or by a lazy human. They’re cracking down on this from multiple directions:
- Scaled Content Abuse: “Scaled Content Abuse” is when a site produces a high volume of pages that don’t have a lot of helpful content, but simply exist to trip up users on search engines. Examples of this would be the flurry of websites that pop up when you try to find a celebrity’s age or net worth, or content that is clearly a thinly-filed-out template with no helpful answers. Importantly, some of these sites are built and maintained by people, though AI can make producing this kind of page easier.
- Site Reputation Abuse: A good reputation is valuable — and this is true in Google’s algorithm, too. Highly-rated sites known for helpful content can get preferential treatment in search results. Sometimes, these high-rated websites will rent out space on their domain name for lower-quality content, using the site’s good reputation to get past the velvet rope. Low-quality content on normally “high-quality” sites can confuse algorithms and users alike.
- Expired Domain Abuse: Tech is no stranger to sites being sold or going defunct. Sometimes, after a site goes out of business, others purchase those expired domains in order to trick users (and search algorithms). It can sometimes take a while for algorithms to catch on to a repurposed domain’s new management. Google’s latest changes now consider such pages to be spam.
Additionally, Google has implemented tweaks to their quality algorithms and spam policies to make it easier to respond to issues quickly.
What Do I Do About The Core Update?
If you’re a publisher, your goal should be the same as it always has been: produce good content. It’s the best policy in the long run, and Google is actively working to make sure that better-quality content gets pride-of-place on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
There’s nothing wrong with engaging in SEO best practices, but it’s important to remember who you’re writing for. If audiences are likely to find your content engaging, helpful, and informative, then Google isn’t likely to flag it as spam.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, Google’s goal is the same as it has always been: produce search results that get people the answers they’re looking for. If you’re producing quality content, you’ve got nothing to worry about.
If you’re a publisher looking to improve your monetization, OKO Digital has what you need. You can get started today by reaching out to our team. With a reputation for quality going back to our founding in 1996, we pride ourselves on helping publishers maximize their potential.
