Search engine optimization (SEO) has always been an arms race between search engines and people seeking to game them for better traffic. Google is by far the biggest search engine in the world—with 82% market share as of January 2024. Any updates to their algorithms will cause a ripple effect across the SEO community, and the Google March 2024 algorithm update was ground-shaking.
Google claims their latest algorithm updates (a core update and a spam update) reduce "low-quality, unoriginal content in search results by 40%." However, by taking a giant step to block AI content, it seems Google may have thrown the baby out with the bathwater by locking out a ton of websites with genuinely useful, human-made content. Meanwhile, some obviously AI-generated websites have surged in traffic with the update, which has led to confusion and frustration among site owners and SEO experts.
Background on Google March Algorithm Updates
The March 2024 update is actually two: a Google core update that was implemented over a few weeks in March and a spam update that is being slow-rolled until May. That means we won't know the net effect of both for at least several months.
Google has been using an AI spam-prevention system SpamBrain since 2018, in addition to manual reviews. According to Google, "If your site is affected by a manual action, we will notify you in the Manual Actions report and in the Search Console message center."
There's no way to know if you have been affected by an algorithm shift other than seeing your traffic change. The company doesn't share what metrics they're tracking, so it's difficult to know what you're doing wrong.
In recent years, Google's algorithms have also made thousands of small changes to their algorithm every year in a race to keep up with changing behavior (and dodge SEO manipulation.) Other updates are big enough to be named (Florida, Penguin.) The last major update to the Google search algorithm was four months ago, in November 2023.
The company's stated policy is that Google Search's core updates are not personal, and content creators and web owners will be fine as long as they abide by their updated spam policies. Yet some users have reported that the Google algorithm changes have disproportionately affected their web pages, with only some pages getting de-indexed. This suggests the algorithm looks at page-level signals, since many features (like ad placement) are site-wide.
Detailed Analysis of the Latest Google Algorithm Changes
Core Algorithm Update
Google claims that the March 2024 update resulted from changes to their ranking system they began implementing as far back as 2022 "to reduce unhelpful, unoriginal content on Search." Their goal is to push up content that is:
- Helpful
- Human-made
- On pages that are friendly to human eyes (vs. web crawlers)
As a result, hundreds of websites with AI content have been removed from Google indices. Some SEO experts initially guessed that the algorithm is penalizing high-volume publishing (which assumes the use of generative AI) but users have reported de-listed sites with just a handful of posts overall.
De-Emphasis on Links
In a February 2023 keynote at PubCon Austin, Google Webmaster Trends Analyst Gary Illyes hinted that links are (no longer) a significant factor in ranking. This was confirmed in the new spam policy update. The language seems to target private-blog networks and other ways of manipulating backlinks both in and out of a website. Lowering the importance of links also nerfs the mainstay "black hat" SEO tactic of buying backlinks.
Spam Updates
While ranking system changes can kick spam content off the first page of Google Search, their spam policy allows them to "take action on more types of content with little to no value created at scale." Punitive actions include de-indexing, which tracks with what some website owners are seeing with their websites since the March 2024 update.
Google is allowing site owners until May 5, 2024 to update their content to fit the new spam policies. The updated version now prohibits scaled content, expired domains, and site reputation abuse.
Scaled Content
Google has made it known that they're not fans of AI-generated content. 827 sites out of 49,345 sites tracked by Ian Nuttall's Niche Site Metrics were removed from the Google Search index following the update. All of them used AI-generated content. However, Google says their policy does not differentiate whether you use AI or low-cost human labor. They simply want to cut down on pages that present well to web crawlers but "fail to deliver helpful content."
The company is aware that their system is imperfect, admitting that "scaled content creation methods are more sophisticated, and whether content is created purely through automation isn't always as clear."
Google offers clarification about what counts as scaled content abuse.
Expired Domains
Google frowns on people who buy high-ranking domains or take over expired ones and piggyback on the established domain authority to push low-quality content. They're especially wary if the new content is unrelated to its original purpose (e.g., Google gives the example of an expired government agency website being used to sell affiliate content.) Doing this increases the chance your site will be flagged as spam.
Site Reputation
Google is trying to crack down on players who use a back door to get low-quality content onto sites with authority. It is a common practice for people to buy posts on well-known websites or blogs.
Some websites like Huffington Post used to offer established authors a direct pipeline to publishing blog posts. People figured out they could pay authors with that access to publish articles to get backlinks from a site with high Domain Authority. Some financial magazines offer paid memberships, like Forbes Business Council, that allow members to contribute to their high-authority websites with minimal editorial oversight. Google's policy appears to carve out exceptions for these programs.
The update affecting this will not go live until May 2024, so it will be interesting to see how these platforms are affected.
How to Adapt to the Latest Google Algorithm Changes
User Interface
Google has stated many times that its core ranking systems take into account whether websites have a poor user interface. That could mean pages bogged down by ads or that appear designed for search engines rather than people. This is not new to the current update, but Google's language suggests it is becoming more important.
While invisible factors like meta titles are essential, making sure on-page elements are optimized for viewing experience and accessibility will go a long way.
Follow the Loopholes
AI sites that have survived (or are thriving from) the updates show a few remaining loopholes to gaming traffic:
- Local search (e.g. when people are looking for a "deli near me")
- Long-tail keywords with low traffic (and therefore, low competition)
- The initial boost that Google gives brand-new sites (This is a feature of most ranking algorithms, including social media networks like LinkedIn. The system does not initially have information about your content. Pushing the content to readers generates signals that will feed back into the algorithm.)
Develop a Helpful Content System
If you are looking to increase your funnel through organic web traffic, the tried-and-true "white hat" SEO strategy is simply generating the kind of content Google likes: original and relevant analysis, not unhelpful, surface-level articles of regurgitated information.
Yet the latest algorithm change proves that being a source of quality, original content may not insulate you from misdirected algorithm changes.
It's also crucial for brands to keep track of changes to search engine algorithms and any potholes you might step into accidentally (for example, you are using an old NGO domain to build a legitimate commercial business and end up penalized because Google categorized that as site authority abuse.)
What The Google Algorithm Update 2024 Means for B2B Sellers
Any web publisher should be looking to follow the guidelines above so as not to fall foul of Google's new update. But what does this mean specifically for B2B sellers who may have invested heavily in an SEO strategy to draw visitors to their page?
Well, the rules of demand creation still apply. On your website and social media pages, you must create content that is genuinely helpful to your target accounts. You do this by analyzing search intent, demographics, and buyer behavior.
Your demand creation strategy will probably be supplemented with other elements like ads, webinars, podcasts, and video content uploaded to third-party sites (like YouTube or TikTok).
But demand creation is never the end goal. The whole point of search engines and SEO in the first place is to drive people to your website and get them to buy.
So, understanding Google's algorithm and implementing an SEO and content strategy that complements the algorithm is the first part of the puzzle.
The second part is capturing that traffic.
Demand Capture with a Signal-Based Revenue Orchestration Platform
Your content and SEO strategies are all in service to your revenue. Thinking in terms of revenue orchestration - and not simply 'website traffic' or 'increased sales' - means you take a more holistic view of the entire demand creation and demand capture process. And Warmly, the signal-based revenue orchestration platform, can help you do that.
The B2B buyer journey
Identifying traffic
There's no point spending hours learning the ins and outs of the new Google algorithm update, and updating your SEO strategy accordingly - if you don't have a system in place for analyzing all that new traffic to your site.
Warmly's de-anonymization technology can reveal up to 15% of individuals and 65% of companies who visit your website, so you can track who is visiting, how often, and what they're interested in.
Reveal contacts and companies
Optimize Account-Based Marketing
By gathering de-anonymized traffic data, you can start to categorize leads depending on how ready they are to buy. And knowing which companies your site users belong to makes it easier to accomplish your goals for account-based marketing.
Have you got users arriving from a keyword that doesn't really match the solution you're offering? Ignore it. On the other hand, if there are prospects landing on your page from high-intent keywords, who perhaps have browsed competitor pages too, you know it's time to nudge them along the sales funnel.
Automate Lead Prospecting
Once you've identified the right traffic coming to your site (or, rather, once Warmly's clever AI-powered tech has identified the right traffic), you can let our AI prospectors take over and handle outreach.
Alternatively, choose to get Slack notifications whenever a prospect is online and loop in a human SDR to get the conversation flowing.
Our AI Prospectors can also handle email marketing and LinkedIn outreach, so your sales reps can concentrate on supporting those high-value accounts towards purchasing.
Route intent signals to outreach channels, automatically
Conclusion
We're still in the process of seeing how the helpful content update and other algorithm changes are affecting website traffic and site owner behavior. However, the best way to inoculate your website traffic is to build a brand with broad authority to weather future algorithm changes.
That means establishing a long-term, helpful content strategy based on expertise. Then, you can use an autonomous revenue orchestration platform such as Warmly to help you capture those views and turn them into customers.
Interested in finding out how Warmly works? Check out our guide to Warmly implementation to get an overview of how easy it can be. Or, if you want to hear from us directly, book a call with one of our sales reps.
Cover image by Freepik.