Google's Major March 2024 Core Update Completed Before Public Announcement

The Google March 2024 Core Update brought several changes to website ranking criteria:

• Reduced the importance of links: The update de-emphasized the role of links in determining a website's ranking. Previously described as 'an important factor in determining relevancy,' the updated spam policies now refer to links simply as 'a factor.'

• Emphasizing quality and content: Google is giving more weight to the quality, credibility, and substantive content of websites.

• Addressing manipulation attempts: The update targeted link spam and manipulation attempts, such as creating low-value content for manipulative links, using links intended to artificially boost site rankings, and repurposing expired domains with different content to game search visibility.

As a result, SEOs and publishers are advised to audit their strategies and websites to ensure they align with Google's new perspective on ranking.

To provide feedback to Google about the March 2024 Core Update, you can use the ranking feedback form that Google has opened related to this core update. This form will be available until May 31. It's important to note that while the feedback won't be used to make changes for specific queries or websites, it may help inform general improvements to Google's search ranking systems for future updates.

The timeline and status of the Google March 2024 Core Update are as follows:

• Announcement Date: The update was first announced on March 5.

• Completion Date: The core algorithm update was completed on April 19, taking a total of 45 days.

• Confirmation Date: Google confirmed the rollout's conclusion on April 26, a week after the update was completed.

The update was more complex than routine core refreshes, and Google warned that it could take up to a month to roll out, with the likelihood of more fluctuations in rankings than with a regular core update.