Google “Evolution” Core Update – 2024
I’m dubbing the latest large-scale Google Core Update “Evolution” as Google notes that it is an evolution in how they identify the helpfulness of content.
The Google “Evolution” update released March 5, 2024 is the most significant core update to its search system since 2012.
It aims to combat the tidal wave of AI-generated content. This content has flooded the search engines since last year.
The scope and size of this roll-out reminds me of the Panda and Penguin updates of 2011 and 2012. At the time, I was the President and CEO of Allegro Medical.
We were the largest online reseller of home health care and medical supplies. Our site had over 150,000 monthly visitors and $2MM in monthly revenue.
Panda helped our traffic. We focused on making helpful website content for our customers. However, we unknowingly built backlinks in a way that violated Google’s policies. This practice would eventually result in an Unnatural Link Penalty.
Our third-party marketing agency did what most SEO companies of the day did: They built low-quality backlinks using comment spam, link farms, mommy blogs, and PLNs.
When we looked at the nature of the links in 2009, it was clear they had no benefit, and we ended the practice. Although we had not paid for a backlink in over two years, by 2012, the damage was done. We received a Manual Action, one of Google’s first “Unnatural Link Penalties” ever issued. It took us months to understand the problem, engage with Marie Haynes (the first specialist in Link Penalties and Manual Actions), remove and disavow 10s of thousands of links, and submit a reconsideration request.
Within the last week, we estimate that over 25,000 websites have received manual actions related to the March 2024 Google Core Update & New Spam Policies.
In 2023, Google issued over 100,000 manual actions. That was a 60% increase from the previous year.
In 2024, the eCommerce Institute estimates that Google will issue over 175,000 manual actionsMar.
What is the 2024 Google Core Update all about?
Google’s goal remains unchanged: to provide the most relevant and useful results to searchers. The algorithm uses signals and ranking factors to help decide which results show on a search engine results page (SERP).
The origin of the content is a significant factor in ranking. Historically, if you created original content, you would get credit for publishing it and rank ahead of others who copy it.
Recently, Google has given less credit to content originators. They credit site authority and domain strength more, allowing bigger sites to dominate in SERP.
For example, if you created a new gold pricing method and posted it on your small blog, you would be #1 for a search at first. However, as soon as Bloomberg discovers it and publishes an article, they will displace your position. When Yahoo Finance, Monex, and other more authoritative websites copy the content, they again push your page further down the results.
AI has recently driven the creation of unoriginal content to new levels. AI tools easily generate content, but it is a mix of words and sentences from someone else’s content. In fact, AI content could draw content from other published AI-generated content.
Google hopes to improve search results. It wants to do this by “finding the most helpful information on the web.” Their algorithm has to filter through cloned, copied, and spun versions of original content. The original content deserves the spotlight in SERP.
Google also warned SEO hackers in the March Core Update. Some SEOs have used questionable or fringe practices to get backlinks and better rankings. Backlinks remain one of the biggest ranking factors in the Google Algorithm. Because of this, some SEO practitioners push the boundaries of what’s acceptable.
One of the backlink-building practices Google calls out in the Core Update is domain harvesting. It is the practice of purchasing expired domains with useful backlink profiles. SEOs harvest the link equity from old domains that are re-established after being dropped. The websites are resurrected and used to prop up other websites by linking to them.
Google is punishing practitioners of this and other spammy link-building practices. Some SEOs will stop at nothing to create backlinks, even posting on obituary sites and including backlinks to their target websites.
If you have a comment or question or need help with an unnatural link penalty or improving your rankings, contact us today.
