Deep Dive: An extinction level event for SME's online
Google's March Core update has destroyed businesses relying on digital reach. Here's what happened and what you may need to consider.
Over the decade of digital marketing I’ve immersed myself in, there are two universal truths within the profession:
Word of mouth is still the #1 marketing solution.
SEO is a never ending dogfight.
Since March 2024, the digital landscape has gone through an unprecedented shift. Most SMEs (small to medium sized enterprises) with an amateur outlook on the value of websites have been caught off guard and impacted the heaviest. Even those who do take SEO best-practice techniques seriously are not exempt from this domain slaughter house.
It was Google’s March Core Update 2024, one of many algorithmic changes the search engine giant frequently makes. However, it seems these changes have severely impacted smaller websites across the internet while increasing the reach of bigger ones.
This event is the definition of a smouldering crisis. So, what’s going on and how do we get through it?
A summary of Google’s March 2024 Core Update
The internet - and specifically Search - has been a degrading, messy place to be. But it’s also been an oil field for those who know where to dig. For decades, media outlets realised increasing clicks on affiliate ads by manipulating search rankings was more profitable than generating useful content for users. “Keyword stuffing” (the strategy of searching for high quality - low competition keywords and stuffing articles with the word) was putting some website owners in the black. But this created an ocean of spammy media.
Take this hypothetical scenario, it may feel familiar:
You are searching for a recipe for a popular dinner. The top result you choose has a nice picture of your dish and a title that reads “10 step recipe for tonight’s lasagne”. You enter and within four seconds (a tactical delay), you are presented with a pop-up asking you to subscribe. You decline and scroll but don’t find the recipe. There are irrelevant and inappropriate ads on the side of the page. And, if you’re the observant type, you’ll notice almost every paragraph mentions ‘lasagne’ (keyword stuffing), accompanied by hundreds of links within the text (these are called backlinks). It’s a frustrating experience.
For a decade now, Google has been trying to crack down on this. But the last two years, they’ve gotten serious in their attempt to “clean up the internet”, remove spam, and provide more “people first” content. Specifically, they’ve focused on:
Content Quality: Emphasizing well-researched, informative content.
User Experience: Prioritizing websites with faster load times and mobile-friendly designs.
E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness): Giving preference to content created by experts in their respective fields.
In theory, this should have skyrocketed smaller websites. Unique content creators who provide fresh and niche perspectives on topics they are passionate about (think uni student obsessively blogging about tie dyed t-shirts) should be winning.
Instead, the update did the opposite, ruining livelihoods, killing thousands of small businesses, and favouring the media giants like Quora, Instagram and Reddit. This update now provides Google with unlimited user data for a fee (more on that later).
Evidence of obliterated websites
Some reports suggest small businesses that relied on a digital footprint for revenue lost on average 45% of their traffic with some dropping over ten places on their general rankings in Google (that’s the equivalent of moving off the first page - of which there are only 8 to 10 spots). Some Redditors who run publications and blogs had even worse outcomes.
Another Reddit user talked about Google’s move to update how the landing page of a search result is currently arranged, commenting:
“Google is no longer that of a search engine…Of all the keywords I target, 80% have YouTube videos for the first 3 results…Google has STOLEN from creators”.
But perhaps the most common case study is that of HouseFresh.
From 4,000 referrals a day that generated enough income for 20 staff, to 200 that made all but six of them redundant, this niche website is the digital love child of husband and wife due Gisele and Rodrigo Navarro. Their success is attributed to a very specific subject in an uncompetitive market: air purifiers.
Mrs. Navarro would set up dozens of brand purifiers in their basement and conduct mini science experiments before providing readers a detailed review.
But by March 2024, HouseFresh plummeted in rankings and were instead replaced by Reddit posts providing their own informal experiences.
If you’ve not already checked, you can see if this impacted you, too. Simply head to your Google Analytics, change the custom date to around September 2023 to between June and September 2024 and review if there is a drop anywhere on the timeline. Then, jump onto your Google Search Console and check the same data and time ( they can vary). If there is no drop, this tells us two things:
Your website wasn’t ranking in the first place.
You beat the update and Google’s changes actually favour the content you’re producing (Great! Keep up the good work).
Why is Gemini and ChatGPT stealing our content?
Large Language Models (or LLM’s for short) produce response from the available data they have access to. They’re “guessing the next word” each time they respond according to author and AI enthusiast Ehtan Mollick. Data that LLMs use can often come from publicly available sources like your website. In broad terms, this means that OpenAI and Google’s LLMs are using your content without your conscious permission, and they’re doing it royalty free.
I’ve thought long and hard about the ethics of this. On one hand, most of us freely use ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity. On the other hand, we are the ones providing it the data.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai, said that they’re rolling out the AI-generated answers feature directly in search. It’s being tested in the US but observations are so far not good. The tool is providing advice like “adding glue” to your pizza to create a shine.
But, Pichai is optimistic.
“The result is a product that does the work for you. Google Search is generative AI at the scale of human curiosity."
Additionally, Liz Reid, Google's head of search touched on how Gemini provides links to websites that have provided some or all of the resources it uses to provide you a response. She says that Google are seeing this new experience increase website ranking and evolve as a new and “exciting” way for more people to see your content.
"As we expand this experience, we’ll continue to focus on sending valuable traffic to publishers and creators."
But there is no data to support this claim and no reliable way to analyse traffic from LLMs like Gemini.
LLMs are sourcing much of their final responses to your questions from multiple resources. And if there is a bad egg in that basket, it will produce factually incorrect information. It’s what author Jacob Ward calls “the loop" in his book of the same name. Eventually, Ward writes, LLMs will be pulling content and data from sources that used LLMs to create it in the first place, producing a never ending loop of incorrect information.
How Reddit benefited from the March Core Update
Google’s strategy was to enhance the knowledge Gemini has and make it sound more relatable, more human. Partnering with what the brand calls “the front page of the internet”, Reddit is contributing to an unfathomable level of data. On average, Reddit sees 46.7 million responses a day. To benefit off of this gold mine, Google signed a $60m a year deal with Reddit to access this content. That’s 35c a response.
As a result, Reddit’s revenue totalled $243m (up 48%) after going public and benefiting from Google’s favouritism of human focused responses.
“people often want to learn from others’ experiences”
Google responded when challenged with the drop in independent website traffic.
Google spokespeople say that they were seeing many users include “Reddit” at the end of their queries, and simply answered to the demand. But this would only be true if their Gemini model was not now using this data in a commercial deal. Propped up by Google’s AI strategy, Reddit truly is becoming the front page of the internet.
The Google papers leak
It’s important to understand the verified leak of the Google algorithm papers earlier this year. The papers confirm much of what Google’s key spokespeople and executives promised was false (shock). But deep in the 2,000 page document, it shows hints at how businesses can benefit from the updates.
You can access the entire document here.
There are risks Google will pivot major strategies now the papers have leaked, but when reading between the lines, one can consider strategies that can set you up for long-term competitive advantage.
The objective for a search engine is to provide users the answer to their queries as quick as possible. But they’re now putting emphasis on user generated content (even if it’s wrong). They also want more ‘guides’ and tutorials on fixing common issues. For example, how do I prolong the life of my laptop - what are the steps?
What you can do to beat the update
Fortunately, there is light at the end of the tunnel, and this pixelated tide is turning. Evidence suggests Google’s latest August 2024 update is aimed at fixing the issues that impacted smaller publishers. They supposedly listened to the concerns and devastating impacts of the March update and are now tweaking ways to push genuine, less spammy content to the top.
The jury is still out on that one - and it could take 3 to 7 months to see any impacts on your own site - but at least there is clear direction from Google on what to do.
Write meaningful, well researched content that is valuable to your audience.
In other words, ‘news updates’ are rarely valuable unless you’re an investor of the company. And keyword stuffing is just hard to read. Get more creative.
"Our recent updates aim to connect people with content that is helpful, satisfying and original, from a diverse range of sites across the web,"
a Google spokesperson tells the BBC.
"As we work to improve Search, we're continuing to focus on sending valuable traffic to sites and supporting a healthy, open web."
For the most part, I believe this statement. But I am confident (from decades of data and research) that this will take considerable time to make an impact. We need to be innovating in the meantime.
What you can do:
We know that sites like Reddit and Quora are doing well, so what unique components do they have you can replicate? Community engagement? Upvoting? Subscriptions?
If Google is trying to improve its AI, then feed that beast. Consider content and answers that would be useful in a Gemini or ChatGPT result (if they’re going all in on this, surely they will reward sites that are contributing…?)
Keep calm and carry on. It’s likely this storm will pass. By continuing to follow Google’s recommendations and best-practice, there is a chance it will come back to favour you in a few years. Making drastic changes now could hinder that. SEO is a very patient game. If you want quicker results, run Ads.
And finally: Diversify your reach
Seasoned investors will tell you that diversifying your investment is a smart move as it reduces the risks and impacts of market volatility. The same advice can be used for marketing. We’re often told to have our social media channels set up, a responsive website, email newsletter, and even banner advertising. But rarely do we put thought behind how each one of these funnels need a different strategy.
Google’s update is a reminder to spread the risk evenly and continuously review where you’re getting healthy traffic from. That’s what true risk management is, and what being resilient rewards.
So, what is your next move?
You can keep up to date with Google’s search engine algorithm changes via their official dashboard, here.