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Ranking Changes Related To Google March 2024 Core Update

Published

2 months ago

March 10, 2024

Today is the first day I have seen solid evidence of serious ranking volatility and changes related to the big Google March 2024 Core Update. As a reminder, the Google March 2024 Core Update officially started on March 5, 2024, and will take up to a month to roll out fully. We are expecting numerous ranking changes during the next few weeks.

Google said this core update should reduce the amount of unhelpful, low-quality, unoriginal content in its search results by 40%. Google is pushing out changes to numerous systems within the overall core ranking system, which is why it will take around a month to roll out and which is why you should expect ranking volatility numerous times throughout this roll out period.

Today I am seeing signs from both SEO professionals and site owners and also the automated Google tracking tools that this update has landed today, March 9th. Some saw early signs yesterday as well.

Also, keep in mind, Google dished out tons of manual action penalties on March 6th and 7th, mostly related to “pure spam” penalties. This is different from the core update or even the spam update, because manual actions are not algorithmic and you will get notified of a penalty in Google Search Console – I explain more over here.

Google Tracking Tools On March 2024 Core Update:

As you can see, most of the tools started to spike a bit on Friday, March 8th, but really started to show big volatility on Saturday, March 9th. I expect even more volatility to show tomorrow, Sunday, March 10th – I may update this story with more details then, so check back tomorrow:

Advanced Web Rankings:

Wincher:

SERPstat:

Algoroo:

SEO Chatter

Here is some of the SEO chatter of people talking about this update kicking in. This is across X, WebmasterWorld and the over 1,200 comments here:

And here are some sites starting to surge based on the March 2024 core update. Again, these are sites previously impacted by core updates or HCUs. I’ll share more as time goes on. I think we will see a lot more volatility in the next day or two… pic.twitter.com/cMOy1rldv8
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 8, 2024

Traffic is terrible this morning. Google vs spammers battle is more intense than ever. And they are not using precision munitions either. They are dropping nukes. Collateral damage is immense. Spammers are changing tactics. Reddit, Medium, Linkedin Pulse are turning into Blogspot style spam dumps. Quality of search continues to steadily decline. It’s Spamaggeddon!

Strangely, GSC shows a corresponding increase in indexed pages to around 150k for 1 ccTLD. It only has around 1200 pages to index. All noindex’s are checked and in order, so what’s going on, I wonder.
No manual penalties reported.

There is tremendous volatility on many queries right now. A guide of mine with several solutions on android auto problems is surpassed by news sites that give a solution that there was on a certain day a few years ago. Obviously this solution no longer works and is not valid for all the problems that can be had with the operation of Android auto, moreover these news dealt with only a bug of a version of Android auto. Once My article used to be among the top positions, rightly so Since it has all the possible solutions to try for solve.

I’m hoping that this is a Search Console bug too. But the other thing that my GA4 must be glitching too, because it also shows drop to 2 clicks per day. But…
I’m checking my Semrush, checking Hrefs numbers – they are all showing some changes (~10%), but no drop to zero or something like that. Hoping this is a glitch…

I am not seeing a huge decline in overall traffic, but this morning there is a big increase in traffic to obscure lower-level pages and also from unusual locations. I am also seeing single product pages with unusually high levels of visits from different unique visitors. It’s as if this one item suddenly rocketed to the top of searches and lots of people clicked it, then it dropped out of sight again. So I think there must be a lot of churning going on now as the pattern of visits is very different from the norm. The steady decline in converting traffic continues…zero serious inquiries from USA, UK, CA, AU or UAE…it’s like the blood being drained out of my business. I did get an inquiry from Mongolia though…no joke.

This remains to be seen, though many will believe it simply because Google said it. Instead observe the serps for evidence. I see numerous very high quality websites have taken a huge hit in the last few days. By high quality I’m talking about site’s created by professionals with degrees in their fields who have so much EEAT it is oozing out of their eyeballs. My observation suggests the facts don’t back up the claim about Google very easily penalizing AI sites. But we are still early in this update to come to any definitive conclusions.

USA traffic is -31% today, so something is definitely kicking in in the USA SERPS. My overall search traffic is actually up slightly, and UK, AU, CA, and most of Europe ex France is very high today.

I see a slight increase today, as opposed to the last 3 days and compared to the last 3 Saturdays – Saturday is an important mark for one of my sites. So, on this site I see a small increase.

Seeing a lot of sites drop total traffic i.e no impressions but page still shows on the index

🚀 pic.twitter.com/ahSLMX0ham
— Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) March 9, 2024

So I really think this March 2024 core update started to dig its heels in today.

What are you all seeing?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Related Topics:core Google March Ranking Related searchengine update

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Daily Search Forum Recap: March 8, 2024

SEARCHENGINES

Mikhail Parakhin Confirms He Is No Longer Working On Copilot At Microsoft

Published

18 hours ago

May 12, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Mikhail Parakhin, the former head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising at Microsoft, confirmed he is no longer working on the Copilot project. He stepped down as the head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising weeks ago after Microsoft hired Mustafa Suleyman as the CEO of AI at Microsoft.

We knew Mikhail Parakhin was planning to work on something new but now Mikhail Parakhin confirmed that he is no longer working on Copilot.

He said on X, “Not working on Copilot anymore, onto new things.”

I did follow up and asked if “onto new things” means new things within Microsoft or new things at a new company but I did not hear back on that. His LinkedIn profile still shows he is at Microsoft.

Here are those posts:

I know, those were the best 🙂
— Mikhail Parakhin (@MParakhin) May 9, 2024

Not working on Copilot anymore, onto new things.
— Mikhail Parakhin (@MParakhin) May 9, 2024

I am super interested in what Mikhail is working on now and I suspect he will tell us soon.

I deeply miss his transparent and frequent posts about what Microsoft is working on with Copilot and Bing Search…

Forum discussion at X.

SEARCHENGINES

Daily Search Forum Recap: May 10, 2024

Published

2 days ago

May 11, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Google says site reputation abuse is not about links, it is about content. Google Local Service Ads ranking removed proximity as a ranking signal. Google Shopping may soon tell searchers how many shoppers purchased at your e-commerce site. Google Local panels now can show the owner of the business. Mikhail Parakhin from Microsoft confirmed he is no longer working on Copilot. Plus, I posted the weekly SEO video recap.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Google: Site Reputation Abuse Isn’t About Linking

Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, made it crystal clear that the site reputation abuse policy has zero to do with linking. This means that who you link to and/or who links to you has no impact on this new policy that Google began enforcing with manual actions earlier this week.

Google May Show How Many Shoppers Purchased On Your E-Commerce Site

Google has sent some Google Merchant Center e-commerce site managers notifications that a new annotation may begin to show up in the search results next to their site’s listing that shows how many searchers purchased on your site. It may read, “1K shopped here recently.”

Google: Proximity Not A Relevancy Factor For Local Service Ads

Google has updated its Local Services Ads help document on ad rankings to remove the line around “proximity to potential customers’ locations” is a ranking factor for those ads. Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, said the document was updated but there was no recent or “sudden change to ranking considerations” to LSA rankings or positions.

Google Local Panel With Owner Attribute

Google can show the owner of the business in the local panels in the Google search results. I suspect this is not new but I don’t believe I’ve seen this before, where Google will add an “owner” attribute to the local panel.

Mikhail Parakhin No Longer Working On Copilot At Microsoft

Mikhail Parakhin, the former head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising at Microsoft, confirmed he is no longer working on the Copilot project. He stepped down as the head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising weeks ago after Microsoft hired Mustafa Suleyman as the CEO of AI at Microsoft.

Google Ads Cyclone Money Machine

I found this photo funny. It is one of those cyclone money machines that money flies around in, and a person inside is supposed to try to grab as much money as possible. Well, there is a Google Ads logo on this one. Oh, the irony of this photo…

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Search Ranking Volatility, Site Reputation Abuse Enforcement, Pichai On Search Quality, HCU Recovery & More

Google may have had two search ranking algorithm updates, one around May 9th and one around May 3rd. Google began its site reputation abuse policy enforcement this week with manual actions, and it is not about linking. Google said sites may recover from the helpful content update. Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, responded…

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.

SEARCHENGINES

Google Search Ranking Volatility, Site Reputation Abuse Enforcement, Pichai On Search Quality, HCU Recovery & More

Published

3 days ago

May 10, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Google Search Ranking Volatility, Site Reputation Abuse Enforcement, Pichai On Search Quality, HCU Recovery & More

For the original iTunes version, click here.

Google may have had two search ranking algorithm updates, one around May 9th and one around May 3rd. Google began its site reputation abuse policy enforcement this week with manual actions, and it is not about linking. Google said sites may recover from the helpful content update. Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, responded to search quality issues in an interview. Google is now hiding the number of search results under the tools menu. Google will remove the disavow link tool at some point. Gemini stopped linking to sources. Google renamed AI Answers back to AI Overview. Google is testing a new Notes button in Search. Google SGE said you should drink urine to pass a kidney stone. Google has product review summary labels. Google may show searchers how many people purchased on your e-commerce site. Google Ads new Performance Max for marketplaces. Rumors of 25% of Google Ads accounts being audited are false. Bing is testing clearer distinctions between free and paid search results. Google LSAs ranking help document removed that proximity is used for ranking. Google Local Business Profiles is testing a new review listing. Google Search is testing showing only local results for near me queries. Google Analytics gained Google Ads conversion performance beta reporting. Statcounter said Google didn’t lose market share, it was a bug in the reporting. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

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