Google’s algorithm wastes no time removing low-quality sites from search results. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the volume of sites affected by this update may reach historic levels not seen since the Panda and Penguin updates.
1. The March 2024 update qualifies as major
I’ve been around every Google update and in my opinion the March 2024 core algorithm update is clearly on the same level of impact as the Florida, Panda and Penguin updates in terms of extension of the effects. The senior marketers with decades of experience I’ve spoken with all agree that this update is one of the most important.
While the Medic update was an algorithm change, what’s happening now is more than just one big change. It’s a profound change in how sites are ranked. So it’s helpful to review what’s being penalized to understand the scope of this update.
2. Sites that survived previous updates did not escape this one
Social media posts show that Google is removing entire websites from search results and the search index. Some reports come from observers celebrating the removal of low-quality sites that have stubbornly clung to the SERPs through previous Google updates.
Other posts are from publishers who are confused as to why their site network has completely disappeared.
A publication in the private group Affiliate SEO Mastermind recounts the plight of a publisher whose entire network collapsed.
The key details in this post are that the eight affected sites were created within the last two years and each dealt with a different niche topic. The author of the post claims that the content was created manually with only a little help from AI. All websites show zero traffic impressions.
Perhaps one clue as to why this person’s sites were affected is that they were all on different topics, which may be an indication that the author of the sites may not have had the depth of experience that Google is looking for.
The person who made this post on Facebook indicated that they are giving up and focusing their future efforts on YouTube.
Jeff Coyle of MarketMuse AI Content Planning tweeted that a group of sites he follows as a barometer of the effectiveness of Google’s search algorithms were finally removed from Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs).
jeff he tweeted:
“I was checking a group of SERPs I monitor for a collection of horrible spam sites that have been around and crawled for 12-18 months. Many are completely de-indexed and others are hiding in filter= 0 or are grouped literally at the bottom (the actual bottom, like the last URLs that can be found) of the SERP.”
@barelypurple replied to Jeff’s tweet:
“Some trash gets knocked down, which is great, but my main concern is that we’re going to see the big sites get even more traction.”
3. Quick penalties
Another interesting feature of this update is the speed with which sites receive manual actions.
@ratneshkumar684 he tweeted:
“Looks like @googlesearchc is very quick to implement the spam update this time.
One of my friends site got completely de-indexed this morning.
Just now got this manual penalty affecting all pages.
The site published news in the entertainment niche.”
Screenshot of manual action notification
Lily Ray tweeted about ten places missing overnight:
10 Websites Completely Removed From Google Search Overnight
— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) March 6, 2024
Gael Breton he tweeted:
“I’m seeing AI spam sites get completely de-indexed left and right right now.
It’s gonna get interesting”
@PureAffiliate responded with a tweet about a self-described “link building agency” being completely removed from Google search results.
— Bobstack (@PureAffiliate) March 6, 2024
Screenshot of site absent from SERPs
4. Inconsistent communication about manual actions
Jeannie Hill (@essentialskill) posted about businesses that came to her for help reporting inconsistent messages from Google about manual actions, with some getting an email about it while others noticed the manual action in your Google Search Console. Interestingly, one case experienced a decrease in traffic before receiving a message through the Google Search Console.
I have been invited to help some sites after they realized they had manual action. Looking at the data, most had a significant decline before the AM believed their GSC. Some received an email.
— Jeannie Hill (@essentialskill) March 6, 2024
Ollie Ryman @ollie_ryman commented on manual actions related to “abusive experiences” where manual actions do not appear in Google Search Console and the only notification is via email.
Ollie tweeted:
@searchliaison Hi, Abusive experiences do not appear as a manual action in GSC, they are only visible in legacy webmaster tools. If someone is using a domain property, the only way they will know is if they see the email notification. Is it supposed to be like this?
— Ollie Ryman (@ollie_ryman) March 6, 2024
@tonythill shared that everyone he asked about their manual action reported that they did not receive an email notification.
good question Everyone I’ve asked who received the manual action said they didn’t receive an email notification about it 🤔
— Tony Hill (@tonythill) March 6, 2024
5. Small AI content sites may receive a manual action
Someone on Twitter suggested that Google is able to detect AI-generated content because of the massive amount of content published in a short period of time.
Google deindexing AI sites should be based on posting frequency rather than content. I’m not sure how they would do this through content, but if a site publishes 5,000 articles a day and abuses the search console API for indexing, it’s easy to flag.
— Craig Griffiths (@Griffo_) March 6, 2024
The observation that posting speed can make a spam site easy to identify is correct. But the general observation understates Google’s ability to capture AI-generated content according to a response to the tweet above.
@PeteReynolds_ responded to the tweet above with his actual experience with a small site containing AI-generated content that wasn’t competing for anything and was basically sitting around. That seemingly insignificant site received a manual action.
Pete tweeted:
I have a site that only has 8 articles on it, posted a year ago. It was 100% AI and was only intended to warm up the domain in case I ever wanted to continue the project.
It is the only site in my portfolio that has manual action.
— Pete Reynolds (@PeteReynolds_) March 6, 2024
Another thing to keep in mind is that statistical analysis uses more than one data point (like the speed at which content is published). The accuracy of statistical analysis is increasingly accurate with multiple data points and this has been a feature of statistical analysis in search engines for nearly twenty years.
6. Old sites getting a manual action
Another facet of this update is that it’s affecting older sites that haven’t received manual actions before.
@simransingh931 he tweeted:
“Even one of our websites was hit with a manual penalty.
I started it in 2013, a brand new domain that was ranking well and was getting good traffic over the years. I got a manual penalty for this today.
No spam, articles written by trusted authors, everything from screenshots to content was ours.
I thought it was just us, but I searched and found this and a few other threads.”
Contribute: reflection before action
The breadth and scope of manual actions reported by the search marketing community validates Google’s announcement that the update contains a major change to its ranking systems and algorithms.
The Florida, Panda, and Penguin updates introduced new technologies that exposed the weaknesses of common SEO tactics of their time. Search marketers responded with a period of recalibrating search strategies in order to identify the next best way forward.
This update will take a full month to roll out. My suggestion is to familiarize yourself with the sites receiving manual actions in order to understand common patterns in penalized sites. But also, as always, the most obvious problem that stands out is not necessarily the most serious problem.
The entire search marketing industry is waiting and watching. Remember to breathe.
Featured image by Shutterstock/1000Photography
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