How the Google Search Update Affects Your Content (March 24)

Google’s Content Updates

In 2022, Google released its Helpful Content update for its search engine, which prioritized authoritative, valuable content that directly addressed user search queries. Writers were encouraged to focus on producing informative, well-researched, and original content if they wanted their websites to appear at the top of results pages. While AI-generated content was not penalized outright, content written primarily to benefit readers (rather than written with the goal of manipulating the search algorithm) ranked higher in results. 

Similarly, in March 2024, Google further enhanced its search engine algorithm to improve its results and offer more value to users. Here’s what this new update aims to achieve and how it could affect your content.

Improve the Quality of Search Results

The March 2024 update is focused on improving the quality of results that users see after searching for specific keywords and phrases. The top organic (not paid) search results should be the most “helpful” to the user and contain the most original content. 

As an online business, where your website appears in search engine results can make a big difference to your bottom line. One study shows that the top three organic search results for a given query receive about 68% of total clicks. To improve your chances of ranking higher, conduct keyword research to learn what people are searching for and tailor your content to reflect what users are looking for.

Reduce Spam

The algorithm update also improves spam policies, aiming to keep low-quality, recycled content off of results pages. This includes evaluating ranking systems to get a better understanding of the type of content users find most comprehensive and then prioritizing those results. So, if you want to boost your SEO in 2024, make sure your website offers a positive, user-friendly experience and “people-first” content.

Decrease Scaled Content Manipulation

Google is also taking a stand against mass producing low-quality or unoriginal content that’s created to manipulate the search algorithm. The revised policy targets the practice of generating large volumes of content to artificially inflate search rankings (whether this is done using AI content-generation tools, human writers, or a combination of both). 

What does this mean for your content strategy? Essentially, you should prioritize quality over quantity when it comes to publishing content. And if you do use AI to support your content production, then make sure it’s first-rate, user-centric, and aligns with Google’s search quality guidelines.

Boost Trustworthy Content

Another objective of Google’s update is to increase the trustworthiness and credibility of the top search results. For example, at times, largely credible websites may feature subpar content from third-party sources. The goal of these third parties is to capitalize on the positive reputation of the host and direct traffic to their own website. Since this can be misleading to users, Google will now classify this type of low-value third-party content on otherwise trustworthy websites as spam. 

This means that if you run a blog for your business’s website, you should thoroughly edit your content and only publish articles written by authoritative writers. In addition, evaluate your website to check that all your current content is factually accurate and meets Google’s standards for quality.

AI-Generated Content Editing Services

Google’s latest update means your content needs to be excellent to land a top spot in search engine results pages. Make sure all your content, including AI-generated content, meets your high standards by having it professionally edited by our expert team. Grow your business and scale your content publication without sacrificing quality – schedule a call with us today to find out more about our editing services for AI-generated content.