Some members of the ExtraDigital team attended SMX Advanced online on 11th and 12th June 2024. The following blog focuses on the keynote interview between Barry Schwartz from Search Engine Land and Elizabeth Tucker, Director of Product Management for Search at Google, discussing the latest core updates to Google Search introduced in March 2024.
Tucker, who has been with Google for 20 years, starting as a data scientist, explained the updates that aim to enhance user experience.
The March 2024 core update will likely be the largest update in Google’s history. It took 45 days to roll out, including major updates to web spam policies and multiple core systems, driven by user feedback on poor-quality content. As a direct result of these updates, there has been a 45% decrease in unhelpful content, surpassing the initial target of 40%.
But what is Google’s definition of low-quality content? This is all set out in Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines documents, which focus on the EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) framework.
As we look back a little further and reflect on previous updates, such as the Helpful Content update in September 2023, we can see how Google continues to refine its algorithms by listening to both web users and content creators. This is especially true regarding concerns from some legitimate websites that have seen a dramatic drop in traffic since this update occurred.
Finally, the most effective SEO practices from marketers help create user-friendly and easily understandable content by Google's systems. Feedback from SEO marketers has been invaluable to Google in refining recent updates, ensuring that the changes serve the broader goal of improving search quality.
By the end of the keynote, our team had greater understanding of the specific content and behaviours targeted by the latest Google updates, including more on how Google evaluates search quality, and how we can apply this knowledge to our clients’ content creation and optimisation strategies.
