Here’s the latest instalment of Digital Marketing Reads, a roundup of some of the more interesting articles we’ve read lately in the digital marketing world.
Google March 2024 Core Update: Reducing “Unhelpful” Content By 40%
Another day, another Google algorithm update! Here’s what you need to know about the Google March 2024 core update:
- The main goal is to reduce low-quality, unoriginal content in search results by 40%
- Spam policies are being updated to remove the lowest quality content from search results, including automated (AI) content
- Google is aiming to identify websites that are hosting low quality, third party content where said third party is seeking to gain from the hosting site’s favourable reputation
This core update began rolling out on March 8 and already hundreds of sites have been completely de-indexed.
As always, we advise NOT worrying about this or any other Google update. As long as you’re producing high quality content and using white hat SEO tactics, you won’t be in any danger of falling out of favour with Google.
Need help recovering from lost search rankings? Get in touch with our Mildura SEO specialists!
Why Google Seems To Favor Big Brands & Low-Quality Content
The title of this article is a bit discouraging to small businesses like yours and ours, but it calls out the truth: that Google tends to rank bigger brands higher in search results, regardless of the content quality.
Why does Google do this when they’re constantly preaching about the importance of high quality content? This article maintains that the reason is familiarity bias – that is, that people tend to stick with what they know, and choose the familiar over the unfamiliar.
If this is true, then Google’s algorithm must somehow favor bigger websites and brands that people are familiar with and more likely to click than some small business website that they’ve never heard of before.
Global social media users pass 5 billion milestone
This article contains some very interesting social media stats beyond the headline of there being 5+ billion social media “identities” (or profiles) across all platforms.
A few other interesting stats:
- The average person spends about 2.5 hours a day using social media, and 6.7 hours a day online
- Instagram is the “favourite” social media platform (WhatsApp is the second-favourite)
- Digital ad spend grew by 10%, social ad spend increased by 9.3%, and influencer investment increased by 17%
It’s clear that social media is only going to continue to grow and evolve over time, so if you’re not yet investing in growing your social media following or in social media advertising – now is the time!
Need help with your social media ads? Get in touch with our Mildura digital marketing specialists!