If you’re a small business or individual in Irving, Texas, with a website, you have probably heard the buzz about the March 2024 Core Update by Google. These changes could reshape how your site performs in search results, so buckle up for a review of what to expect.
Knowing what the search engine now considers best practices will help you maintain visibility to customers online. We spoke to experts from Online Casino Rank, who have highly ranked, localized articles such as online casino Thailand, Germany, India, Poland, and other countries.
Whether operating a restaurant, boutique, or local service, this update will have a direct impact on your SEO strategy.
A Summary of What’s New
The updates are significant and are aimed at spam. These policies are not simple tweaks; they are aimed at reducing unhelpful content by 40% via a crackdown. The targeted practices include:
- Scaled Content Abuse
- Expired Domain Abuse
- Scaled Content Abuse
For businesses in Irving, these updates aren’t just theoretical. They will require you to adjust the approach you implement. How? Let’s find out!
Site Reputation Abuse
The other update involves site reputation abuse, sometimes called Parasite SEO. Simply put, Samuel O’Reilly, the planner behind some of the most insightful guides on the Online CasinoRank site, explains that this happens “when third-party content appears on your site but doesn’t align with the business’s core purpose.
Some businesses have partnered with companies to publish content. Google wants to make sure that this content is well-vetted and relevant.
The search engine plans to accomplish this by looking for websites that are actively involved in the content they publish, not passive publishers who create catch-all sites that cover random topics.
Expired Domain Abuse
Some entities own a website that sits on an old domain, and others are considering buying one. We advise caution. Priya Patel, the research dynamo behind Online CasinoRank says:
“Be cautious! Google is now penalizing this form of domain abuse which occurs when people buy an expired domain with good backlinks to reuse solely for the purpose of boosting their search rankings without adding new value.”
For instance, a small local business may decide to cut corners to rank higher without improving the user experience. Google can detect this now and penalizes it by pushing your site down the rankings.
Don’t worry if you have bought a domain and genuinely improved it. The key is to add real value and build trust with your audience.
Scaled Content Abuse
Jordan Mitchell, the XXX at Online Casino Rank, explains scaled content abuse this way:
“Some sites produce large amounts of low-quality content to rank higher. This has especially exploded in the age of AI. These tools can generate content at astonishing speeds, as seen in cases such as that of the man who earned $10 million from spamming Spotify with fake bands.”
Google is cracking down on the AI slop epidemic. Now, businesses that use AI tools may freak out at this news, but Google isn’t cracking down on productivity. However, businesses using AI to flood their niches with blog posts that offer visitors little or no value could be penalized.
The focus should thus be on quality instead of quantity. Use AI to support your efforts to get traffic, but don’t let it replace well-researched, relatable, and thoughtful material meant to help your audience.
What Does This Mean For Small Businesses in Irving?
These changes are not aimed at just the largest players; they impact local businesses in Irving just as much. If you are running a small business that depends on local search traffic, it is time to adjust to SEO shifts to influence how well you appear in search results when someone Googles your business.
