Google has declared war once again on search spam and low-quality content gaming its algorithms. But the company’s latest anti-spam push has reignited doubts over whether it can truly get to grips on an issue as old as search engines themselves.
HIGHLIGHTS:
- Google’s March 2024 Core Update targets search spam and low-quality content.
- Multipronged strategy aims to cut low-quality content by 40%.
- Industry skepticism over the effectiveness of anti-spam efforts.
- AI content generation challenges Google’s spam detection.
- Debates on Google’s role in ensuring content quality and trustworthiness.
The March 2024 Core Update
Google’s March 2024 Core Update is described as an extensive retooling of multiple internal ranking systems to better differentiate between pages ‘genuinely aiming to help users’ versus those merely looking to attract ads and clicks.
Complementing the update are revised policies warning against tactics like repurposing expired domains, mass-producing AI content, and exploiting reputable sites’ ranking potential.
A Multipronged Strategy Against Spam
Google states the multipronged initiative targets an increasingly problematic trend. Search engine optimisation (SEO) professionals brazenly manipulate the company’s algorithms through tactics that potentially violate its guidelines, degrading the quality and authenticity of results.
Many also use AI tools to pump out mountains of low-value pages designed solely to rank highly for lucrative search queries.
“We believe these updates will reduce the amount of low-quality content on Search and send more traffic to helpful and high-quality sites. Based on our evaluations, we expect that the combination of this update and our previous efforts will collectively reduce low-quality, unoriginal content in search results by 40%” says Elizabeth Tucker, director of product management.
Violating sites supposedly risk demotion or outright removal from Google’s indexes. Enforcement is aided by a separate ‘spam update’ running simultaneously alongside the core ranking changes.
Challenges and Skepticism
Google’s Targeted Actions Against Influencers & Spam
“My suspicion is they are doing what they did last time and telling people it is the algorithm when in fact they have just manually identified a load of sites to target.”
Reports and observations indicate that Google appears to be targeting ‘SEO influencers’ who have been vocal about their tactics, sharing their websites publicly, and in most cases engaging in actions Google deems as spammy.
Oh wow
— Jacky Chou (buying online businesses up to $1m) (@indexsy) March 8, 2024
Google finally hit my revenue generating assets
Emergency live stream in an hour 👇
Many of the sites shared on social media that have been hit appear to be fairly low-quality, with the primary focus to manipulate search without building a brand or providing significant value to users.
This 🧵 is a continuous culmination of the ongoing, public reports of sites being hit with manual pure spam penalties by Google 👇 pic.twitter.com/T6Zgd2sMue
— Charles Floate 📈 (@Charles_SEO) March 8, 2024
There have also been accounts of private sites receiving manual actions from prominent affiliate bloggers such as Niche Site Lady:
Fucksake. Two of my sites hit. One absolutely did not deserve it. Pretty obvious they've been rooting through my GSC looking for targets. ☹️
— Niche Site Lady (@NicheSiteLady) March 8, 2024
I thought that keeping your sites separate was only needed for black hats. Not so. My mistake. pic.twitter.com/yp0XRG7mQH
On paper, the anti-spam effort seems noble, yet familiar. Its aims showcase quality content creators over those simply looking to exploit Google’s ranking algorithms. Google claims its goal is to ensure “those actually producing helpful content succeed in search ahead of those who engage in spam.”
However, the announcement has been met with widespread scepticism from industry specialists who have witnessed similar Google crackdowns come and go with little long-lasting impact.
Matt Diggity referring to the recent corporate deal between Google and Reddit (Reddit dominating many queries in search). Poking fun at Google for demoting and penalizing influencers showing their first-hand experience – The very thing Google is advocating for:
Outlook India ranking for ‘Best Vancouver Realtor’. Outlook India is a well-known website used for ‘Parasite SEO’:
Forbes, an example of a site known for site reputation abuse ‘Site reputation abuse is when third-party pages are published with little or no first-party oversight or involvement, where the purpose is to manipulate search rankings by taking advantage of the first-party site’s ranking signals.’:
Many are questioning what Google considers to be ‘helpful content’, and how exactly they could accurately determine the nuances and subjectivity of Experience, Expertise, Authority, & Trust (E.E.A.T).
While algorithms can identify some violations, Google still relies on ‘manual actions’ to address spam issues plaguing the web which hints that their spam algorithms may not be as reliable as Google claims.
Statements Google has made about past spam updates have historically been seen as incredibly resource-intensive due to the sheer volume of websites to monitor. No direct evidence or examples of any improvements to search results has ever been provided to show what has actually improved.
‘Manual Action’ penalties amidst Google’s 2024 March Core Update
Google’s search indexes contain trillions of web pages, making it wildly impractical to manually vet content at scale, or allocate complicated and expensive resources aimed at reducing spam.
The AI Content Dilemma
AI content generation has further compounded matters. Many are questioning how Google’s detection systems can possibly keep up with tools capable of producing vast amounts of AI generated content on demand.
‘Delve into the details’ – a common ChatGPT phrase appearing in 127,000 indexed blog webpages.
Problems With Google Search
Others have recently argued that Google’s very perception of quality in search results has deteriorated over time, with increasing complaints about highly authoritative websites dominating rankings for almost any search query–even ones far outside their core editorial expertise.
The issue is highlighted in a report from Detailed, showing how 16 major companies account for over 60% of first-page Google results across 10,000 popular product and informational searches.
Users have similarly complained that their search experiences have degraded rather than improved.
Results have become increasingly polluted by low-quality listings simply rewriting the same superficial information found across countless other pages, a preponderance of Reddit threads, and thinly veiled affiliate “review” sites looking to earn commissions, while some legitimate websites are being caught in the crossfire.
At its core, the perpetual arms race between Google and what the company perceives as ‘spam’ calls into question the early internet’s utopian vision of an open, unfiltered repository of knowledge and information. Profit motives may have fundamentally distorted Google and their vision in ways most average users fail to fully grasp.
While it is still very early on in the rollout of the March 2024 Core Update, it would appear so far that Google has once again chosen to spread Fear, Uncertainty, & Doubt (F.U.D.) through SEO communities instead of directing their efforts towards fixing a real problem with search.
By making an example of prominent SEO influencers with a few manual actions, and the threat of harsh penalties for failing to comply with guidelines, Google’s spam problem becomes less resource intensive and costly. Maybe they have past data that shows a self-policed SEO community built on F.U.D. is 40% more effective at reducing spam?
It leaves webmasters scrambling to decode Google’s mixed messages and double-standards. Many are genuinely making an effort to provide real value, and still get caught in the crossfire.
Welp, Google's March Core Update crushed Travel Lemming an additional 65+% already 📉
— Nate Hake (@natejhake) March 10, 2024
We honestly tried our best (see my tweet below for receipts)@glenngabe says the HCU is punitive. This feels like cruel & unusual punishment though⚖️
We don't even know our crime
We don't… https://t.co/znZZDktr8C pic.twitter.com/xVja7wjUsK
If Google really wanted to rebuild trust in their systems, showing clear examples of real spam they have eliminated from search would be a start. Anything beyond that is just left up to interpretation which causes confusion and further discourse within SEO communities.
With every update Google makes, there is a lot of collateral damage. Webmasters and site owners are never directly shown any of the good that comes from a Google spam update. Instead it is left to the opinions within the community about what is deemed as spam vs helpful content.
But for now at least, Google is happy with the likes of Forbes being a ‘trusted expert’ on which CBD oil products you should buy in 2024. And Outlook India is still the ‘best resource’ for finding realtors in Vancouver.
Forbes organic search (Google) traffic growth over time: