What is Google's March 2024 Core Update?

Some webmasters, SEO analysts and business owners may have seen a recent drop in visitors and page impressions across their websites in late March and Early April. Google's March Core Update was released on the 5th of March 2024.

The key points about Google's March 2024 Core Update are:

1. Significant Algorithm Changes:
   - The March 2024 Core Update is a major change to Google's search ranking algorithms and systems.
   - It is described as a "game-changer" that will have a significant and widespread impact on websites and search results.

2. Focus on Quality and Relevance:
   - The primary goal of the update is to improve the quality and relevance of search results by reducing low-quality, unoriginal, and unhelpful content.
   - Google is aiming to elevate content that provides unique insights and a good user experience.

3. Deindexing of Low-Quality Websites:
   - As part of the update, Google is completely deindexing and removing from search results websites that violate Google's guidelines or use questionable SEO tactics.
   - Estimates suggest up to 40% of low-quality websites could be removed from Google's index.

4. Rapid and Severe Penalties:
   - The penalties imposed by the March 2024 Core Update are swift and severe, with many websites being quickly deindexed.
   - Even websites that survived previous updates are not immune and are now facing consequences.

5. Focus on E-E-A-T and User Experience:
   - To avoid penalties, websites need to focus on demonstrating Expertise, Experience, Authority, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T).
   - Improving overall user experience, including factors like page speed and mobile-friendliness, is also crucial.

In summary, the March 2024 Core Update is a major algorithmic change by Google aimed at significantly improving the quality and relevance of search results by penalizing low-quality, spammy, and unoriginal content.

Citations:
[1] https://searchengineland.com/google-march-2024-core-update-things-you-need-to-know-438370
[2] https://boomcycle.com/blog/march-2024-google-core-update/
[3] https://eastsideco.com/blog/march-2024-core-update
[4] https://surferseo.com/blog/google-core-update-recovery/
[5] https://searchengineland.com/google-march-2024-spam-update-done-rolling-out-438505​

what are some best practices for website owners to avoid being impacted by google's march 2024 core update?

​Based on the information provided in the search results, here are some best practices for website owners to avoid being negatively impacted by Google's March 2024 Core Update:

1. Focus on Content Quality and Originality:
   - Avoid low-quality, unoriginal, or duplicated content. Ensure your content provides unique, valuable, and insightful information.[1][2][3]
   - Demonstrate expertise, experience, authority, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) through your content.[2][4]
   - Cite reputable sources and clearly showcase the expertise of your authors.[2][4]

2. Improve User Experience:
   - Prioritize user experience factors like page speed, mobile-friendliness, and clear calls-to-action.[2][3]
   - Ensure your website is easy to navigate and provides a seamless experience for visitors.[2]

3. Avoid Manipulative SEO Tactics:
   - Steer clear of tactics like relying on expired domains, cloaking, and other deceptive practices.[1][3]
   - Do not use AI-generated content or other methods to artificially inflate content quantity over quality.[3][5]

4. Conduct Regular Audits and Monitoring:
   - Regularly audit your website for any technical, content, or SEO issues that could be penalized.[1]
   - Monitor your website's performance and rankings closely, and be prepared to make necessary adjustments.[1][2]

5. Prioritize Transparency and Compliance:
   - Ensure your website fully complies with Google's Webmaster Guidelines and other policies.[2][4]
   - Be transparent about your content creation and SEO practices to build trust with both users and search engines.[2]

The key is to focus on creating high-quality, unique, and user-centric content and experiences, while avoiding any manipulative or deceptive tactics. By following these best practices, website owners can better position themselves to withstand the impact of Google's March 2024 Core Update.[1][2][3][4][5]

Citations:
[1] https://www.clue.com.au/blog/future-proof-your-website-all-about-the-march-2024-google-update
[2] https://searchengineland.com/google-march-2024-core-update-things-you-need-to-know-438370
[3] https://boomcycle.com/blog/march-2024-google-core-update/
[4] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/googles-march-2024-core-update-impact-strategies-website-supriya-bhor-89dif
[5] https://www.searchenginejournal.com/googles-march-2024-core-update-impact-hundreds-of-websites-deindexed/510981/

WHAT's THE GOOD NEWS?

While Google's March Cre Update maybe a big loss to some webistes it will have significant benefit to many. The key benefits and upside for existing good websites from Google's March 2024 Core Update are:

1. Opportunity to Gain Visibility: By Google removing a significant amount of low-quality, unoriginal content from search results, the update creates more opportunities for high-quality, helpful websites to gain more visibility and higher rankings.
2. Improved User Experience: The core goal of the update is to elevate the overall user experience by promoting more useful, relevant, and trustworthy content in search results.
3. Reduced Competition from Spammy Websites: The update specifically targets and deindexes websites engaging in manipulative SEO tactics, content automation, and other spammy practices such as uses old authorative domains providing spammy affiliate links.
4. Reinforcement of Best Practices: The update reinforces the importance of creating high-quality, original content that demonstrates expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T).

The key upside for existing good websites is the opportunity to gain more visibility and traffic as Google works to significantly reduce the prevalence of low-quality, spammy content in search results, like harvested directory pages and websites. This update rewards websites that prioritize user experience and original quality content quality that does not rely on duplicate content from multiple sources.

LESS PAGE IMPRESSIONS BUT SAME AMOUT OF VISTORS

What I am also hearing from local business and SEO specialsits is that, although they are reqistering far less page impressions (50% less in some circumstances) there site traffic (visitors) has not reduced by very much.
From this I can only assume that Google has refined it's page indexing for page impressions.

So your website may not be appearing for all your previous keywords. But it appears that it mainly affects the keywords that your website may have been appearing for, further down the search index.

So the chances of someone scrolling through the dozens of Google page results for more tenuous keywords associated with your website does not really matter much. As the click through rate was extremely low anyway and may not have been even appropriate.

So therefore, it is worth noting, that this may have a positive effect on time on page, dwell time or duration.