I’ve promised many times that I’ll be talking more about marketing in my newsletter, so here it is :) - about the March Core Update from Google - the (most popular*) search engine.

Since this is right up my alley as an SEO specialist - I thought a few words on the matter were important. But before anything else, remember this:

Google will always try to show its user - the one who performs the search - the best possible answer for that query.

That’s it! One of the most valuable companies on the planet, that gets their revenue from search and we know what they want to achieve. Not sure why we’re not billionaires yet…

Anyway…

That’s what SEO work is all about - the work to help Google understand that the website we’re working on is the one it needs to show to its users when looking for a plumber/roofer/dentist/massage therapist/coffee shop/cheap good running shoes/ etc.

How do you do that? Common sense, really - a good website, decent hosting, highly optimized, good content (more on that later) - optimized titles, subheadings, meta description and at the end of the day, giving what the user wants. How do they measure that?

They have different data points - Chrome is the most popular browser on the planet ;)

From SkeletonClaw’s Reddit.

Of course, there are other data they look at as well - time on site, dwell time, click-through rate, relevance, proximity, etc. But at the end of the day, it’s common sense. Some markets are more competitive - in Toronto, it will be more difficult to be on the first page (whatever that means these days) for any kind of keyword, than in a place like Calgary for example.

Of course, it depends**.

This introduction had to be mentioned just to clear out some things from the start. Now, about this March update - and its importance.

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Google is rolling out a few core algorithm updates a year. It used to be twice per year, and one at a time, but that turned out to be false. And it makes sense, they are such a huge company that the departments don’t know what they are up to. In addition to that, there are a few more minor updates going on every day. It’s worth mentioning Panda and Hummingbird - from a time when it was really easy to rank websites if you were just saying cheap iphone repair 100 times in your content.

But I’m not that old to have been around this space when that happened. 🙄 Seriously. I’m not. 🤥

I have only been slapped by the 2018 Medic update but have since recovered. Of course, as I said, I’m not that old to have been around for the previous ones. 🤥

Here’s a history of its updates and their impact.

Fast forward to 2022, when Chat GPT came along, everyone suddenly created written content. I wish I had said it, but I need to attribute it to Andy Crestodina"

“It's amazing to me that people think they can type 10 words in a box and the job is done. That's not a thing!”

Well, that did not stop many websites with crap content spat out by ChatGPT as is to rank quite well in the search results. Up until this core March update that is, where some websites have been completely wiped out from Google.

They don’t “exist” anymore.

Some were done manually because their owners were going public with their projects. But it’s fair to say that most of them have no use at all. They were simply results after 10 words were typed in a box.

It doesn’t mean you won’t be seeing some crap results or that this has ended the SEO for good. There has always been stuff like that before Chat GPT.

During the hummingbird and panda algorithm updates, I heard there were people who used word mixers - you would put in a paragraph and these tools were mixing the words together, making no sense, and using that text on other websites with just the primary keyword as an anchor text, linking back to the main site.

We’ve been spoiled - 98% of the internet consists of website pages that make no sense to humans. Google has done an excellent job filtering those out, but remember, everything happens algorithmically. If you’re doing everything right, there’s no particular reason you will get slapped by any algo updates.

And most business owners I’ve worked with do it right. They know that the work is not typing in 10 words in a box - you can’t possibly be happy with that result.

And no, Google is not against A.I. content - Google wrote the manual on how organizations use A.I.

Remember, G. only wants to show its users the best possible answers to their queries.

Nothing else.

And it makes sense, right?

Ok now back to you - have you ever been slapped by an algo update? How did you recover?

*Most popular in most countries, but there are still some massive places with an immense population that use search engines other than Google. Hard to believe, eh?

**One of the most common answers in SEO

I am 70% sure I was supposed to be living in the 60’ and 70’ in Europe somewhere. I am connected to that era’s music and I love that I still discover eternal hits such as Puerta del amor by Nino Bravo. It's a funny clip - it should look ridiculous, but somehow it's not. And, of course, the message and the lyrics (I don’t speak Spanish either, but you can easily find the translation on the internet) are impactful. We don’t hear much of this message these days, do we?

​Short of the Day​

​Vicente Del Bosque explains the keys to his success with Real Madrid and Spain​

A great interview with one of the greatest coaches of all time. Spain’s Vicente Del Bosque. On leadership, managing powerful characters and personalities, and being around at the right time, in the right place, a few times. Worth the read. Seems like it was translated into English :)

​Patagonia - Company History​

In the latest How About Some Marketing? webinar, our guest, Michelle, shared the story of Patagonia - from its foundation to today. Worth reading - to understand the effort they are making and why they make this company so special. And if you haven’t seen the last webinar, here’s the recording.

​Cleaning up WordPress option clutter​

A late entry, which I didn’t have time to review yet - I saw Olivian’s post on How About Some Marketing?’s Facebook group. It seems very interesting - many small websites turned out big throughout the years, and there’s a lot of clutter. Something worth reviewing for sure.