In the first half of 2024, Google’s Core Update has significantly transformed the dynamics of online visibility, influencing the interaction between search engine algorithms and content creators. The shift focuses on AI-generated content and the need for credible and reliable online content. Google has introduced the E-E-A-T—Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness—guiding principle to meet these standards.
The Google March 2024 Update has led to Google implementing changes across various elements of its core system. The prioritization of helpful content is now a key aspect of core updates. Chris Nelson from Google’s Search Quality team has said this version is more complex than previous ones, employing a range of innovative signals and methods to deliver useful results.
AI-generated content has become a key challenge, with its low entry barrier leading to a surge in the production of unverified and false information. This leads to subpar user experience and puts Google’s fundamental quality model at risk, affecting their business model as low-quality Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) hinder ad sales and user engagement.
Websites affected the most by this update are low-quality, AI-generated ones that manipulate search results. The update has caused the deindexing of many websites, and significantly affected advertising revenue and organic search traffic. Websites heavily reliant on AI-generated content are particularly impacted.
To future-proof content strategy from spammy AI content, prioritize ethical AI by creating vetted, fact-checked content and leverage tools like WordLift and ontology design for knowledge graphs. WordLift, by enriching content with structured data and semantic markup, helps search engines understand its context and relevance more effectively. The use of ontology design further strengthens your content strategy by structuring information in a significant way, improving user engagement and reasserting your content’s authority and expertise.
