Stop Creating Content for Google

How Google’s algorithm update is putting customers and great content first (At last)

Google’s recent blog post on its March 2024 Search update makes one thing abundantly clear: helpful content is king. It also says very clearly that spammy or low value content is out and will be downgraded. Google is telling us to stop focusing on optimizing for Google and start optimizing for customers instead.

This shift in focus is a win not just for searchers, who will be rewarded with more relevant and trustworthy results, but also for creators like us who prioritize quality content.

I have been in the B2B marketing space in Taiwan since 2006 and what I have seen again and again is search engines making some basic mistakes:

• Ranking spammy, low quality review websites and directories with loads of backlinks and keywords.
• Allowing high authority websites to abuse their positions to rank content that is way outside their area of expertise.
• Failing consistently to rank high quality content in competitive segments and favor only the same high authority sites again and again.

This is all changing with the latest algorithm updates…

Our SEO Journey at GlobalSense

When we started our SEO service at GlobalSense back in 2017 we said from the beginning that only a few long term strategies are guaranteed to work for customers: Great content, Great Design and Great Structure. If we get these right then we always believed that we would be able to start ranking rapidly.

That did not always happen

Our sites were ranking, and some of them were ranking very well indeed. However in some market segments the great content was not ranking and instead we were seeing pages of low quality review sites and directories dominating the search results and pushing the really good content off page 1.

That was very frustrating as these review sites and directories were quite open about their pricing for putting your product on their site and I can only believe that Google knew this too, but could not do anything about it.

Until now.

Will 2024 be a New Era for The SEO Community?

This might be a pivotal moment for digital marketers who have been under the shadow of “big brother Google” for too long. Google is now telling us that it is wrong to be making our websites great for Google and that instead we should focus on doing things that are of value for our customers.

For the huge number of technical SEO companies in Taiwan this is not good news. They have technical skills but not content creation skills and creating great content takes time too. This will have a big impact on their customer’s website traffic and revenue in the coming months.

However, for those of us who have been focused on doing things the right way rather than constantly trying to game the system, it is a wonderful gift from Google and we think it will last for a long time too.

So What is Google Saying About its Latest Update?

Gone are the days of manipulating search rankings through black-hat tactics. Google’s March and May 2024 Algorithm updates mark a new era, one where content quality reigns supreme. This shift benefits everyone involved – searchers get better results, creators have a chance to shine, and the web becomes a more trustworthy and informative space overall.

These are the key changes that Google says the update is addressing

• Improved quality ranking: The update includes “algorithmic enhancements to our core ranking systems to ensure we surface the most helpful information on the web and reduce unoriginal content in search results”​​.
• New and improved spam policies: Google is updating its spam policies to “keep the lowest-quality content out of Search, like expired websites repurposed as spam repositories by new owners and obituary spam”​.
• Reducing low-quality, unoriginal results: The update aims to “refine some of our core ranking systems to help us better understand if webpages are unhelpful, have a poor user experience or feel like they were created for search engines instead of people”​ (blog.google)​. This is expected to reduce low-quality, unoriginal content in search results by 40%, with the rollout completing in April 2024 showing a 45% improvement​ ​.
• Keeping more spam out of your results: The update involves “targeted action under our spam policies” to address new and evolving abusive practices that result in unoriginal, low-quality content appearing on Search​.

You can read the original article about Google’s Search Update for March 2024

So What does all of this mean for SEO?

The first thing to say is that the changes are good if you are already doing the right thing and creating great content. However for B2B manufacturers in Taiwan there has been a bit of confusion that just because your company is large, your website should rank highly.

This is of course not the case and in the coming months we will likely see some big changes as small companies that have been working hard at creating useful content for users will see themselves going up the search rankings while the large companies are heading down.

No matter what size of company you are, I would like to leave you with a few thoughts that are worth considering:

“If an SEO company says they can make your company rank on Google in 6 months without creating new content or updating your website, they are probably not being honest with you.”

“Stop wasting money on directory sites, they are no longer ranking on Google. Make your own website rank instead.”

“Your website is an investment, not a cost. It needs to be looked after and updated just like your company if it is going to deliver new business to you.”

“It does not matter how big your company is, if your website is low quality, that is how new customers will view your company too.”

This is my favorite:

“The best way to help your competitors is to do Nothing.”

If you would like to have a free SEO audit of your website, then please click the link and we will get in touch with you.