Google Completes Rollout of March 2024 Core Update After Month-Long Turbulence

The Google March 2024 Core Update, which began rolling out on March 5th, has now officially completed a week ago. This major algorithm update aimed to reduce the amount of unhelpful, low-quality, and unoriginal content in Google’s search results by an estimated 40%.

According to the search results provided, the update has had a significant impact on many websites and their search engine rankings. Some key takeaways:

• Many site owners reported major traffic declines of up to 90% after the update, with one user stating they lost around $6,000 in income due to their site being de-ranked for a commercial keyword.
• The update appears to have targeted “parasitic SEO, expired domains and reputation abuse” according to one source, penalizing websites engaging in these practices.
• However, the update also seemed to favor smaller websites with lower domain authority but higher quality content in some cases, with one user seeing their new post reach the #1 ranking position.
• The rollout of the update took around a month to complete, with significant ranking volatility and changes observed throughout this period.

Google stated that this core update should reduce the amount of low-quality content in their search results by 40%. While the full impact is still being assessed, it’s clear that the March 2024 Core Update has had a major shakeup in the search landscape. Site owners will need to carefully evaluate their content and SEO strategies to ensure they are providing the highest quality user experience in order to maintain or regain their rankings.