Google’s March 2024 Core Update Impact: Hundreds Of Websites Deindexed

The impact of Google’s March 2024 Core Update, which targets low-quality content and spam, is becoming apparent as the rollout progresses.

Recent analyses reveal that over 800 websites have been completely deindexed from Google’s search results in the early stages of the update.

Widespread Deindexing

Ian Nuttall, a prominent figure in the SEO community, has been tracking the indexing status of 49,345 websites following the launch of the March 2024 Core Update and its associated manual actions against AI-generated spam.

Nuttall’s findings shed light on the sweeping impact of Google’s latest initiative.

Of the 49,345 sites monitored, 837 websites had been removed entirely from Google’s search index.

I checked the index status of 49,345 sites to measure the impact of the AI spam manual actions!

1.7% of sites got hit, 20+ million monthly organic visits gone and over $446k in display ad revenue lost.

Want the data? Follow, like, and reply with 👏 and I’ll send it over! pic.twitter.com/sUo22DejaL

— Ian Nuttall (@iannuttall) March 8, 2024

This represents approximately 1.7% of the websites in Nuttall’s database. The deindexed sites span various categories and ad networks, highlighting the broad scope of Google’s actions.

However, it’s too early to tell whether these websites will remain deindexed, as several are already reappearing in Google’s search results.

I ran my script again to check the sites that were deindexed and 21 of them are showing pages indexed in Google again.

The big winners were fresherslive·com and oldtimemusic·com who have 5m and 2.5m pages indexed.

Here’s the full list:

fresherslive·com – 5,050,000 pages… pic.twitter.com/zgpm1toudt

— Ian Nuttall (@iannuttall) March 11, 2024

Significant Traffic & Revenue Losses

The consequences of being deindexed are severe for the affected websites.

According to Nuttall’s analysis, the 837 deindexed sites accounted for over 20.7 million organic search visits per month before the manual action. The sudden loss of traffic is devastating for the impacted websites.

Further, the deindexing is estimated to result in a monthly loss of $446,552 displayed advertising revenue across the affected sites.

Targeting AI-Generated Spam

The findings from Nuttall’s analysis align with a recent study conducted by Originality.ai, which investigated the prevalence of AI-generated content among the deindexed websites.

The study found that 100% of the affected sites showed signs of AI-generated content, with 50% having 90-100% of their posts generated by AI.

These results suggest that Google’s March 2024 Core Update effectively targets websites relying heavily on AI-generated content to manipulate search rankings.

The manual actions taken against these sites demonstrate Google’s commitment to combating the rise of AI-driven spam and low-quality content.

Reshaping The Search Landscape

As the March 2024 Core Update continues to roll out, its impact on the search landscape is becoming increasingly evident.

The widespread deindexing of websites engaging in manipulative practices, particularly those utilizing AI-generated content, signals a significant shift in Google’s approach to maintaining search result quality.

The consistency between Nuttall’s data and the Originality.ai study reinforces that Google is taking decisive action to address the growing problem of AI-driven spam.

As the update progresses, websites and content creators must adapt to Google’s heightened focus on quality and originality.

The full impact of the March 2024 Core Update will become more evident as it continues to roll out over the coming weeks. However, the early indications from Nuttall’s analysis and the Originality.ai study suggest that Google’s efforts to reshape the search landscape and prioritize high-quality, human-generated content are underway.