Google has confirmed that its March 2024 Core Update has finally completed rolling out – almost a month after it was first deployed. A key focus of this update was on tackling low quality content.

A Google representative confirmed this, commenting, “As the web and spam tactics continue to evolve, we’ll continue to work to reduce low quality, unoriginal content in Search.” Search Engine Land reports a notable 45% decrease in unhelpful content in the wake of the rollout. But what does this mean for your site? And what actions should you take in the aftermath of a major update?

Determine if your site has been impacted

Search visibility often changes when a core update is being deployed but will the stabilise a few days later, so it’s important not to have a knee-jerk reaction right away. Instead, take a data-orientated approach. Review your website analytics – a sustained dip in traffic volumes could suggest your search presence has been impacted. If you see a dip followed by a climb in traffic volumes, it could be that you’re simply seeing normal flux.

In addition to your analytics data, review your ranking report too. Looking for changes over a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly period, rather than very short windows such as 24 or 48 hours. If your rankings are generally stable, chances are your site hasn’t been hit.

Study competitor activity

Regardless of whether your site has fared strongly or poorly because of a core update, it pays to know how your competitors are performing. If you have your keyword ranking software set up to also monitor ranking changes for key rivals, review this data for any major gains or losses. Are they showing the same general pattern as your own positions? Or have their experienced major gains or losses?

If it’s the former and competitors appear to have benefitted from a core update, you’ll need to delve deeper into their website and search presence to understand what they’re doing well that you may have overlooked.

Audit your content

Google’s decision to target poor quality content is a great opportunity to ask yourself how your own content can better serve your audience. Perform a content audit to identify thin and outdated content that could be revisited and improved, referencing Google’s good quality guidelines. This is a great opportunity to ensure that your content addresses user intent and meets your buyers at every stage of their purchase journey.

Monitor the impact of your changes

Any changes you make have the potential to boost your site rankings and better serve your customers. But you’ll only know if that’s the case by measuring their impact and monitoring search engine and consumer reaction to those changes. Making small, incremental improvements makes this task much easier and allows you to easily understand the impact of your actions. Where something has worked well you can then replicate that knowledge in other areas of your site. If something doesn’t quite perform as planned, you’ll need to go back and take another look.

If you’d like support achieving your objectives, we can help. We combine data and technical expertise with extensive search marketing knowledge to drive your business forwards. Talk to us today.