Being a digital marketing expert, you must be well aware of “Google algorithm updates.” And why not? they need to get acquainted with such updates. Based on these, digital marketers optimize their strategies to deliver improved results.
Just like every other year, Google has also rolled out several updates in 2024 that have proven effective for business owners. These updates are focused on improving user experience and rewarding websites that are posting genuine and unique content.
Here, we will see 5 key Google algorithm and AI updates in 2024 that have proven to be best for businesses.
5 Fruitful Google Algorithm and AI Updates in 2024 for Businesses
1. Google August 2024 Core Update
The latest core algorithm update by Google in 2024 was rolled out in the month of August. It took around 19 days to get completed. The focus of this update was to penalize low-quality content. Websites that have completely relied on AI to produce content just to manipulate SERP rankings are the ones affected.
Individual writers and content that actually provide value to the users while meeting their search intent have been rewarded after this update. The major focus of Google while rolling out this update is to alert spammers who are continuously posting irrelevant and low-quality content to rank high in the SERPs.
For businesses, that have always focused on providing value to their target audience with fresh and information-rich content, this update has come in very handy. Such businesses have seen a significant shift in their search engine rankings.
Overall, this update has penalized AI-written content that provides zero value to users.
2. Explicit Fake Content Update July 2024
This update by Google in July 2024 was to penalize content that was non-consensual and explicit. Besides this, the update has also targeted deep fake videos and images created using AI to harm others. After this update, genuine businesses had a sigh of relief as they were able to rebuild their authority and expertise.
This update changed Google’s algorithm and it started removing fake and non-consensual content from search results. In that process, websites that violate Google’s policies were demoted.
Above all, the affected websites saw a massive shift in their rankings because of the July 2024 update.
3. Google Spam Update June 2024
In June 2024, Google rolled out an update that penalizes websites violating spam policies. Again, the goal here was to improve search results and provide value to the users. Took around 1 week to get complete, this update targeted websites that generated content with the only goal of manipulating rankings.
The spam update 2024 also affected websites that had low-quality or duplicate content and engaged in activities of buying or selling links to manipulate rankings.
This update also had a significant impact on the search rankings. Business websites that followed good SEO practices and had healthy and information-rich content were rewarded with higher SERP rankings.
Here also, thin AI-generated content was under the scanner.
4. Google AI-Powered Overviews May 2024
In terms of AI, this was one of the most important updates that Google rolled out. Here, Google introduced the new Gemini model that was customized for search.
With this update, Google improved the way users searched queries. Google’s algorithm became stronger in handling complex queries. Moreover, Google introduced AI overviews on the search engine result pages. With this, users are allowed to change language and get detailed information on their search query to get a better understanding of it.
This May 2024 update of Google also improved the way algorithms used to answer complex queries. For each query, users found an AI-generated headline in the SERPs. Moreover, they can customize the answer as per their needs and requirements.
Overall, this update changed the way Google used to provide answers to search queries.
5. Google Core Update March 2024
In March 2024, Google rolled out another core update that was again focused on thin and low-quality content. This also had a positive impact on businesses that were following Google’s guidelines.
This update took around 45 days to complete. Around 40% of irrelevant and manipulated content was removed from Google searches. This improved user experience to a great extent.
The algorithm changes during this update focused on improving the quality of search and reducing spam. This also changed the way websites used to rank. As a result, websites employing black hat and spam practices saw a great decline in their rankings.
On the other hand, business websites that always focused on providing value to their target audience were shifted higher in the SERPs.
Above all, there was also strict action against machine-generated content that was used to manipulate search rankings. Not only AI-written but human-written low quality content was also removed.
Additionally, March 2024 Google update also updated policies for webmasters who used to abuse expired domains by posting low-quality content to rank higher.
These 5 updates of Google’s algorithm in 2024 have improved the way sites rank in the SERPs. Moreover, strict actions are taken against those who try to violate Google’s policies and manipulate rankings. This has significantly benefited genuine business websites whose sole purpose is to deliver value to their users and provide what exactly they are looking for.
