Impact of Google's March 2024 Update on Website Rankings

I checked the index status of 49,345 sites to measure the impact of the AI spam manual actions!

1.7% of sites got hit, 20+ million monthly organic visits gone and over $446k in display ad revenue lost.

Want the data? Follow, like, and reply with ???? and I'll send it over! pic.twitter.com/sUo22DejaL

— Ian Nuttall (@iannuttall) March 8, 2024

1. Introduction

   • Brief overview of Google's March 2024 Core Update
   • Importance of high-quality, human-generated content

2. Widespread Deindexing

   • Overview of Ian Nuttall’s findings on deindexed websites
   • Statistics and scope of the impact

3. Consequences of Deindexing

   • Traffic and revenue losses for affected sites
   • Importance of organic search visits and advertising revenue

4. Targeting AI-Generated Spam

   • Originality.ai's study on AI-generated content prevalence
   • Google's focus on combating AI-driven spam

5. Reshaping the Search Landscape

   • Google's efforts in maintaining search result quality
   • The future for websites and content creators

6. FAQs Related to Google’s March 2024 Core Update

7. Conclusion

   • Recap of the update's impact
   • Encouragement to focus on high-quality, original content

Article

Introduction

In the digital age, where search engine rankings can make or break a website, Google's March 2024 Core Update has emerged as a pivotal moment for webmasters and content creators worldwide. With hundreds of websites deindexed for prioritizing low-quality, AI-generated content, the update underscores the search giant's commitment to enhancing the quality of information available online.

Widespread Deindexing

Ian Nuttall's recent study reveals a significant upheaval in the SEO landscape. Tracking 49,345 websites post-update, Nuttall found 837 completely removed from Google's search index, roughly 1.7% of the total monitored. This drastic measure affected sites across various categories, indicating Google's broad-reaching efforts to purge low-quality content from its search results.

Consequences of Deindexing

The fallout from this extensive deindexing is profound. The affected websites, previously attracting over 20.7 million organic search visits monthly, now face a precipitous drop in traffic and a collective loss of approximately $446,552 in monthly advertising revenue. These figures highlight the severe impact of Google's crackdown on sites relying on subpar, AI-generated articles for search visibility.

Targeting AI-Generated Spam

Aligning with Originality.ai's findings, Google's March 2024 Core Update specifically targets websites inundated with AI-generated content. Originality.ai's research indicates that all deindexed sites contained AI-produced text, with half of them composed almost entirely of such material. This focus reflects Google's intensified efforts to ensure that search results prioritize high-quality, human-generated information.

Reshaping the Search Landscape

As the March 2024 Core Update continues to unfold, its role in redefining Google's search landscape becomes increasingly clear. By penalizing sites that lean heavily on AI for content creation, Google signals a new era where quality and originality reign supreme. This shift not only aims to enhance the user experience but also challenges webmasters and content creators to adopt more genuine, value-driven approaches to content creation.

FAQs Related to Google’s March 2024 Core Update

• What is Google's March 2024 Core Update?
• How does the update affect websites using AI-generated content?
• What can webmasters do to recover from deindexing?
• How will this update impact future content creation strategies?

Conclusion

Google's March 2024 Core Update marks a significant turning point in the ongoing quest for a more authentic, informative internet. By deindexing hundreds of websites that failed to meet its quality standards, Google reinforces the importance of human insight and creativity in content creation. As the digital landscape evolves, this update serves as a reminder to all that in the world of SEO, quality content is king.

I ran my script again to check the sites that were deindexed and 21 of them are showing pages indexed in Google again.

The big winners were fresherslive·com and oldtimemusic·com who have 5m and 2.5m pages indexed.

Here's the full list:

fresherslive·com - 5,050,000 pages… pic.twitter.com/zgpm1toudt — Ian Nuttall (@iannuttall) March 11, 2024