In March 2024, Google rolled out one of its biggest core updates in years. At the same time, it introduced new rules against spam. A core update is a broad change to the way Google assesses and ranks pages. It is therefore not about one specific fault on your site. It is about which pages give the best answer.
Many sites saw big swings in their rankings. Sites with a lot of thin or copied content were hit hardest. In this article you will read what changed, what Google cracked down on and what the owner of a small site can learn from it. You will also get a repeatable approach for investigating a drop without having to guess.
What changed in March
Google updates its search engine all the time. Most changes go unnoticed. A core update is different, because it can make your rankings visibly rise or fall. Google said the rollout could take about a month. During that period, results are still moving.
This time, two things happened at once:
- A change to the way Google assesses the quality of content.
- Stricter rules against spam, with more emphasis on content made mainly to rank rather than to help.
The system that previously ran separately to reward helpful content is now more a part of the core of the algorithm. As a result, quality and usefulness carry more weight in the overall assessment.
What Google cracked down on
Google named three forms of spam that are being treated more strictly. It is useful to know them, even if you have nothing to do with spam yourself. They show where the line is drawn.
- Mass-produced pages. Think of hundreds or thousands of pages with little value of their own. It makes no difference whether they were made by hand, with software or with AI. What matters is the purpose: filling up pages to capture search traffic.
- Expired domains that are reused. Someone buys a domain name whose previous owner has stopped using it. That domain often still has a good reputation. Content on a completely different subject is then placed on it, in order to exploit that reputation.
- Third-party content on strong sites. A well-known site lets another company publish pages with little oversight. The strong name of the site helps those pages rank higher. Google calls this site reputation abuse. For this rule, Google allowed a lead time, with enforcement from 5 May.
Do you have an ordinary business site with your own copy? Then this probably does not affect you directly. Even so, part of your site could be seen in the same way. Think of old blog posts that add little, or long series of near-identical service pages for each place name.
What small sites can learn from this
Big sites attract the attention, but the lesson applies to you too. Sites with clear expertise, their own examples and a well-defined subject held steady or grew. Sites that mostly repeated what others had already written lost ground.
Google often talks about experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness in this context. These are not dials you can turn. They are qualities that a reader notices for themselves. Does the writer know what they are talking about? Does the page include their own examples, photos or figures from their own work? Is it clear who is behind the site?
A few rules of thumb you can apply straight away:
- Choose a clear subject and stick to it. A site about everything is hard for Google to place.
- Show who you are. Put authors, contact details and company information somewhere easy to find.
- Add something others do not have, such as your own experience, your own approach or a genuine case from practice.
- Remove pages or merge them if they add nothing.
A common scenario: a local installation company has had thirty pages made over the years, one for each town in the region. The texts are similar. Only the place name differs. After an update, traffic falls on almost all of those pages. The main page about the service and two blog posts with photos of real jobs continue to rank well. The lesson is then clear. The pages with original content work. The copy-and-paste pages add nothing. The company merges the thirty pages into a handful of strong pages, featuring real projects and questions from customers in the region.
How to find the cause of a drop
Are you seeing a loss in your traffic? Then work through it step by step. Google Search Console is a free Google tool that shows which search queries and which pages make you visible. That is where you start.
- Compare periods. Put the weeks after the start of the update next to an equivalent period before it. Look at impressions, clicks and average position.
- Find the pages with the biggest drop. Sort by loss in clicks. Usually the loss sits in a small number of pages.
- Check the search query for each page. What was the visitor looking for? Does the page really answer it?
- Compare with what now ranks at the top. What do those pages do better? Are they more complete, clearer or more up to date?
- Check the technical side. Rule out anything else that could be going on, such as pages that are no longer indexed, faulty redirects or a slow site. Indexing means that Google adds a page to its database.
- Decide what to do with each page. Improve it, merge it with another page or delete it.
Bear in mind that a drop does not always mean your page is poor. Sometimes a competitor has simply got better. Or Google now interprets the query differently. In that case, you need to make the page fit better with what people really want to know.
Do not change things in a panic
After an update, rankings keep fluctuating for weeks. If you overhaul everything in the first few days, you will not know afterwards what worked and what did not. That is the biggest pitfall.
Choose this approach instead:
- Wait until the rollout has finished before drawing conclusions.
- Assess after about a month, based on averages over weeks rather than individual days.
- Improve in a targeted way. Tackle the pages that bring in the most traffic or revenue first.
- Note what you change and when, so that you can later link effects to actions.
Recovery takes time. Google has to look at your updated pages again and reassess them. For some sites, real recovery only comes with a later update. That is not a reason to stop. It is a reason to keep working on content that holds up.
One last tip: also look at what the change can do for you. A drop on pages without value costs you little. The traffic that disappears often did not come from visitors who would become customers anyway. So also measure enquiries, phone calls and sales, and not just the number of visitors.
Frequently asked questions
Should I have my texts written by a person instead of AI?
Google does not reject content because AI was used. What matters is the value to the reader. Texts produced in bulk and without any input of your own are at risk. If you use AI as a tool and add your own knowledge, checking and examples, that is a different matter.
How long does it take for my rankings to recover?
That varies from site to site. Sometimes you see movement within a few weeks. Sometimes it takes months. The bigger the improvements and the more Google revisits your site, the faster it can go. Nobody can promise a fixed timeframe.
Should I delete a lot of pages if they get little traffic?
Not automatically. Low traffic is not proof of poor quality. Delete or merge whatever is duplicated or adds nothing. Improve pages that have a good subject but are too thin. Leave pages in place that help customers, even if they get few visits.
Book a free 30-minute introductory call
Have you seen a drop after this update and do not know where to begin? Or do you want to know whether your site is ready for Google’s next change? Book a free 30-minute introductory call with Adventio Marketing in Amersfoort. Together we will look at your figures, discuss what you are seeing and give you an initial direction. No obligation and no sales pitch.
