We're finally done with the Google March 2024 Core Update rollout. The rollercoaster ride began on 5 March and ended on 19 April, 45 days later.
Interestingly, Google decided to announce it 1 week after the mission was completed, on 25 April. Hmmm.
That aside, let's summarize what happened in this apocalyptic update:
- The core update changed the way Google identified the helpfulness of content. Google estimated 40% of low-quality pages would be removed from the surface of Google. This number went up to 45%.
- Google created a feedback form to help them improve their search ranking systems, in future. It's going to close on 31 May.
- They also updated their help center page with advice on how to debug traffic drops.
What Was The Google March 2024 Core Update All About?
To recap, the core update targeted 3 points:
- Unhelpful and unoriginal content: This includes content that's aggregated from other sites without adding further information or perspective.
- Poor user experience: Besides technical capabilities like page speed, it would include content dotted with mistakes, uncited claims, intrusive advertorials, and anything that spoils the experience.
- Content created for search engines, not humans: Titles that promise a solution to get the click-through but the content doesn't deliver.
You can read more about it in our previous article on the Google March 2024 Core Updates.
SEO Strategies for Ecommerce Brands Moving Forward
Google's latest algorithm update aims to weed out low-quality, thin content in favor of original,well-researched information.
And as Google has reiterated their stance, whether AI or humans create the content does not matter. What matters is the user.
With that in mind, here are some ecommerce-specific steps you might want to consider in your SEO strategy.
Use unique descriptions
Many ecommerce brands would have been affected by this update while managing many products. Due to that sheer number, brands may simply copy descriptions from manufacturers and suppliers. That becomes an issue of duplicate content if multiple pages on the web have the same descriptions.
Take those descriptions as references, but create your own. It could be that your audience has a unique pain point or need—highlight those in your content.
Create content-rich PDPs
Each page should have sufficient information for users to decide without clicking all over your website.
This includes FAQs like your refund policy, the time it takes to deliver, and how others are using the product in reviews and actual images.
Optimize for user experience
The update considers more than just on-page content. Your site's overall design, functionality and mobile-friendliness also factor into rankings.
Especially if you're managing thousands of products, double-check that all site elements—images, buttons, forms, etc.—function properly. Also, review your Core Web Vitals for any page load issues.
Leverage product schema
Product schema helps search engines interpret your content and feature your page where there's a match in intent. It also shows up on SERPs so users know where to click and which page would likely provide the best answer.
Furthermore, with the possibility of SGE launching, it's even more crucial that we take product schema more seriously.
Include as much information as possible in your product schema—things like reviews, pricing, delivery information, and any special offers can be helpful for machines and users.
Diversify traffic sources
Consider diversifying your traffic sources beyond just Google. While continuing to optimize for search, also focus on other channels like social media, influencers and email.
On top of directly bringing in traffic, these channels also give Google positive signals as users actively engage with your brand and navigate around the website.
How does the Google March 2024 Core Update Affect Hypotenuse AI users?
Hypotenuse AI is designed around creating high-quality content for humans. We build bespoke AI models to ensure that the content we create is highly tailored to each brand, personalized and matching its style.
Every piece of content we write is created from scratch—never plagiarized or duplicated.
Our platform is built to adhere to SEO best practices, and we constantly update alongside Google's changes, including the most recent March 2024 Core Update.
Original and high-quality content
We focus on training bespoke and tailored AI models rather than generic outputs to produce a unique piece for each brand.
Every blog article or product description is written from scratch and not copied from anywhere else on the web.
As a result, you get original pieces that reflect your brand well—capturing nuances in tone, punctuation, formatting or even quirks unique to your brand.
Relevance
Original content alone is insufficient—it has to come together with relevance to your company and target audience.
We take in raw information about your products, past writing, and brand guidelines and background to create content that's specific to you, and resonates with your target audience.
That means writing in a way that shows a deep understanding of what your audience cares about. While also ensuring that it doesn't lose the soul of your business, mission, and standpoints.
Platform experience and workflows
Creating the highest quality of content still requires a human in the loop. Our platform is built for human editors to be able to review and make changes quickly—ensuring the highest level of accuracy and relevance.
The workflow also supports best practices around information for SEO, including ways to add keywords, enrich with additional information and rewrite existing content in bulk.
As long as you continue your current workflow on Hypotenuse AI, there's nothing to worry about. You'll still be able to create content that's original, helpful and relevant—which is what Google is looking for.
Conclusion
As ecommerce brands work to adapt to Google's new core update, creating original and high-quality content that focuses on the user is critical. There's no other way around it.
Spend more time speaking with your customers and researching by joining communities and forums. That way, you'll have the information you need to generate unique content that resonates with your customers.
And if you'd like to speed up your content creation process while sticking to SEO best practices, consider Hypotenuse AI. It won't and shouldn't entirely replace your writing, but it will streamline your workflows and make creating content much faster and happier.
