SEO Weekly Digest on 11-15 of March 2024

Google Sharpens Its Guidelines to Ward Off Untrustworthy Websites

In a notable move on March 6, 2024, Google has refreshed its Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines, injecting detailed criteria and examples to better discern the trustworthiness of websites. This update, marking its first since November 2023, aims at providing a clearer framework for quality raters, though their evaluations don’t directly tweak search rankings. By highlighting the characteristics of untrustworthy pages, Google continues to shape its future updates based on the feedback from these evaluations, emphasizing the significance of accuracy and trust in online content.

Unprecedented Manual Actions in Google’s March 2024 Update

The Google March 2024 Core Update has triggered a historic wave of manual actions against low-quality sites, reminiscent of the impact seen during the Panda and Penguin updates. The update is recognized for its broad sweep and profound alterations in ranking mechanisms, targeting sites across various niches without prior immunity. Insights reveal a swift execution of penalties, alongside an increased focus on detecting manipulative practices, indicating Google’s relentless effort to refine its search quality.

Revamping Link Signal: Google’s March 2024 Core Update

Google’s latest core update brings pivotal changes to how link signals are interpreted, demonstrating the complexity of the new ranking algorithm. The update de-emphasizes the importance of links as a ranking factor, introduces penalties for content created for link manipulation, and sets new guidelines for outgoing links and the use of expired domains. These adjustments reflect Google’s ongoing commitment to promoting content quality over link-based manipulation, reshaping SEO strategies moving forward.

Google’s March 2024 Core Update: A Crusade Against “Unhelpful” Content

With its March 2024 Core Update, Google intensifies its battle against spammy and low-quality content, aiming to slash such content in search results by 40%. The update encompasses algorithm changes for enhancing search result quality alongside new spam policies targeting manipulative content creation practices. Google’s dedication to reducing unoriginal content highlights its strategy to direct users towards more valuable, high-quality sites, further refining the internet’s information landscape.