Tool: See the new Hobo EEAT Tool.
For the small publishers who even made it to March 2024, the March 2024 Google Core Update brought together all of Google’s corrective algorithms launched in 2022 and the ones in the news in late 2023 into one update period.
In March, Google also launched the Google March 2024 Spam Update.
The March 2024 spam update incident began on March 5, 2024 at 09:03 US/Pacific when the update was released (with a rollout period of up to 2 weeks) and ended on March 20, 2024 at 07:09 US/Pacific, with the rollout fully completed by 06:09 PDT on the final day.
By the last Spam algorithm update in this prong of attack, most independent publishers affected had been effectively discarded from Google Search.
Hypothesis – Google’s spam updates target “disconnected entities” as in the “Disconnected Entity Hypothesis“. Google’s HCU targets – amongst other things – topical authority abuse.
We now have, effectively, a topical authority abuse correction algorithm (HCU – Helpful Content Update):
and an entity-based discard algorithm (Spam Update):
All rolled into Core Updates (that recalculate relevant results for users) – you know, on top of all the other things Google does to work out quality.
Well, I think the Spam entity algorithm is kept separate, but it is run during Core Update Announcements, so effectively, it is part of a Core Update.
Never can tell with these things, of course.
But it is one or the other.
Google has control of its SERPs, again (largely)
After the Microsoft Chatgpt Attack of 2022-24 (you can see what I think of Chatgpt here), Google is in control again.
Google’s not only starting to deal with that Ai slop effectively, but it’s now coming for weak, disconnected, and also expired domains.
It is demonstrable that Google is no longer vouching for entities in Search, even though the sites are established on the WEB.
That’s a change.
It looks like an enforcement of the Google Quality Raters guidelines to me.
(I’ve been enforced myself a few times over 25 years online. I recognise it.)
Some sites didn’t even make it to March 2024. Either.
Some deserved it, probably:
And some blindsided, evidently:
March 2024 finished off what September HCU 2023 and October 2023 spam update started
Up until the October 2023 Google Spam Update, I assumed Spam updates were reserved for obvious spam, eg clear violations of the Google webmaster guidelines as laid down in spam policies.
I’m convinced that the spam updates after October 2023 heavily emphasized Entity Health as in the Disconnected Entity Hypothesis, which, while technically a violation of quality rater guidelines, resulted in penalties for many authentic websites (who hadn’t even heard of the Quality Rater Guidelines or understand how to create helpful content for Google).
It’s likely some of these sites confused this with the September 2023 Helpful Content Update, too.
In retrospect, the October 2023 Google Spam Update exhibited similar characteristics and affected similar sites as in March 2024 and also in the December 2024 Google Spam Update.
They targeted the same type of disconnected entities and look closely related.
The March 2024 Google Spam Update was sandwiched in between the October 2023 and December 2024 Google Spam updates and had much the same effect as its namesakes.
Based on an ongoing analysis of over 200 Search Console accounts, the March 2024 Google Spam Update appears to have targeted websites that are unknown or disconnected entities in Google Search.
The March 2024 Google Spam Update seems to be part of a broader trend where Google is focusing on the identity and connectivity of websites and their associated entities. This can lead to seemingly inconsistent results, with some similar sites being penalized while others are not.
While not confirmed on a quantitative scale, this may suggest potential transparency issues regarding the entity behind the domain.
Here’s an example illustrating this point.
March 2024 Google Spam update
I am looking into the traffic trends of a lot of sites, as introduced in this Google algorithm update impact analysis.
Exhibit 19 is a portfolio of hundreds of sites. There’s nothing that much wrong with the sites (sure, they are affiliate sites) although they are helpful enough to pick up independent high-quality links.
In this new paradigm, on Google Search at least, the web vouches for you is no longer KING.
IF Google vouches for you, is.
There’s no guarantee from Google to rank.
Exhibit 19A
This entire portfolio would, at BEST, be classified as ‘disconnected entities’ within The Disconnected Entity Hypothesis framework.
At worst, some sites, such as 19A, received manual actions for pure spam due to their disconnected nature.
In essence, they are unknown entities to Google.
That’s spam to Google now.
Exhibit 19B
This domain was among the last in the portfolio to be affected. As predicted, it was impacted by the December 2024 Google Spam Update.
Exhibit 19C
Many sites in the portfolio were taken out also in March 2024 Google Spam Update, including 19C.
The situation presents a puzzling dilemma for the business owner.
Given that all sites in the portfolio were built using the same methodology, it’s difficult to understand why some are classified as spam, others perform adequately, and a few even show improvement.
My prediction, made last year, using the Disconnected Entity Hypothesis, suggested this outcome.
There are some unusual data points across the portfolio that I’m eager to investigate further.
Now that I’m working with them directly, I want to explore if the hypothesis can be applied even to sites currently flagged as pure spam.
Exhibit 25
Why not?
After all, what constitutes spam if not an ‘unknown status’ to Google? Achieving ‘known status,’ or becoming a ‘connected-up entity,’ might be enough for Google to reevaluate these sites, potentially leading to their recovery, perhaps in an altered form.
I may be overly optimistic, but based on Google’s documentation, I don’t believe so.
We’re about to find out.
I’ll be adding more detailed analysis to this post as I examine the most insightful examples.
If your site was negatively impacted by the March 2024 update, do contact me.
Entity is now King, above Links, Content or even Relevance
I think a case can be made looking at some of these sites that Entity Healthy now outpaces high-quality links as the no. 1 ranking signal. All these had great links and a nice little “brand”.
Especially exhibit 12 A.
Exhibit 12a
I looked at data from not far under 200 websites, both big and small. Google’s updates seem to target sites that it considers ‘unknown’ or ‘disconnected.
Google is putting more emphasis on knowing who is behind a website and how it connects to other things online. This can make the results of Google’s updates seem unpredictable, as similar websites might be affected differently.
When a site is labelled a Disconnected Entity in this hypothesis, it is Goodnight Vienna.
This discard suggests potential transparency issues regarding domain ownership and entity association.
A lack of transparency leads to a disconnected entity status in this hypothesis.
If a page only exists to make money, the page is spam to Google:
A Disconnected Entity looks the same as spam to Google.
A Disconnected Entity IS potentially spam to Google.
Spam, to Google, are disconnected entities by definition.
Google wants to check that these sites profiting in search are not just spam (as termed in the Quality Rater Guidelines, at least):
Your website needs to have its ‘papers’ (documentation) readily available.
It’s crucial to actually have EEAT (Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) and then demonstrate it correctly on your site.
Google should be able to verify at least by proxy what you present.
This is central to the ‘Disconnected Entity Hypothesis.’
If your site was affected by Google updates, especially the March 2023 Core Update or later spam updates (like December 2024), having this documentation is essential.
This guidance is for legitimate websites, not spammers.
