Google’s March Update has caused a significant drop in traffic for many publishers. Here are 5 ways to beat it.
What is Google’s March Update?
Google’s March update goal is, in response to the advent of generative AI, to ensure searching suggests the best quality content possible, filtering out spam and AI-generated content. Full details here.
1. Page Speed & SEO
Site performance, and in particular Core Web Vitals are now even more of a factor when it comes to Google ranking. My suggestion is to use the fastest theming possible, which, in the case of WordPress sites, could be to bite the bullet and fall back to default themes, as these will always out-perform 3rd party themes.
Either way, use Google Search Console and Google PageSpeed Insights to track down performance and SEO issues. if you’re a WordPress user, make use of the Yoast SEO plugin when constructing content.
2. Authenticity
Google is now paying special attention to your about, author and contact pages. So make sure you have them, and they are easily accessible, in multiple parts of your site if need be. The reason for this is Google wants real people writing content, not AI, and this is one of their checks.
3. Content
Content is and will always be king, but even more so now, given the influx of AI-generated competition. I’ve been susceptible to coasting of late, letting the blog take care of itself while publishing the odd contributor article. I don’t think that’s going to wash anymore.
Time to get my finger out and produce more unique, authentic, genuine content that will help people, or at least interest them. Time to take it up a gear.
4. Google Adsense
And with these challenges over traffic comes pressures with Adsense revenue. As part of my site speed work, I’ve decided to switch to Adsense auto ads for a while, just so I can rule out manual ads slowing things down. Let’s see how it goes.
5. Google’s March Update: Re-evaluation
What Google’s March update has taught me is not to rest on my laurels. One minute you could be flying, next you could have the rug pulled from under your feet. Constant or at least regular site re-evaluation is the only way to keep apace with change.
Good luck with your own efforts and drop me a comment below on how you’ve tackled Google’s March update.