After Effects of Google Core Update March 2024: Manual Actions Pop's-Up in GSC Dashboards

 

Are you experiencing tremors in the digital landscape? The online community was shaken by Google's recent manual actions and search ranking penalties. In this blog post, we’ll look at Google’s latest updates and how they affect your website SEO strategy.

Understanding Google's Latest Search Spam Policy Changes.

Google announced significant updates to its search spam policies on Tuesday, which resulted in a series of manual actions and penalties visible in Google Search Console. The highest number of manual actions occurred on Wednesday, March 6th, one day after the policy changes were officially announced.

Google's revised spam policies now include three key aspects: content and expired domain abuse, which are already in effect, as well as the upcoming site reputation abuse policy, which will go into effect in May 2024. To learn more about these policy updates, see my previous post https://iamnikhildaiya.blogspot.com/2024/03/google-core-update-new-spam-policies-march2024.html.

When Google's human reviewers detect noncompliance with the updated spam policies on a website, they take manual action. These actions are primarily intended to stop attempts to manipulate the Google search index. According to Google, the consequences of noncompliance include severely affected pages or entire sites receiving lower rankings or being omitted from search results with no visible indication to users.

SEO Fallout: Websites Disappearing from Google's Search Index

Reports are pouring in from SEOs and site owners claiming that their websites are no longer appearing in Google Search results, even with the site command. Google has been quick to take manual action against sites accused of violating the new policies, amplifying the severity of the penalties.

Not All Updates Lead to Manual Actions

It is important to note that those affected by the March 2024 core update will not necessarily receive manual actions. Google distinguishes between algorithmic updates and manual actions, with the former not resulting in notifications in the Search Console. While you can be hit by both a manual action and an algorithmic penalty, Google prefers to call the latter algorithmic updates rather than penalties.

To summarize, staying on top of Google's evolving search spam policies is critical for maintaining a strong online presence. As we see the consequences of these recent updates, it is clear that Google views compliance as non-negotiable.