After an intense debrief with the SEO team, we can confirm these updates are a rather large deal. As we know (and are a wee bit afraid of) Google is making a significant shift toward AI with the upcoming Generative Search Experience expected later in the year.
To understand the importance of core updates, we need to explain what Google really is: at its simplest Google is a huge bloody database. A collection of URLs and the information within them, stored on massive servers across the world.
Google has several algorithms working at any one time. Some are AI. Some are rule or formula-based. Some are next-gen language models. When someone types a search the first step is to understand the query, the second is to search the database for relevant answers.
The Google Search index contains hundreds of billions of webpages and is well over 100,000,000 gigabytes in size… and that’s data from two years ago, it will be much higher by now!
While they update regularly, core updates are imperative for Google to keep up with developing knowledge and databases. Google runs core updates every 3 to 6 months, they typically mean more major adjustments to algorithms.
This most recent core update seems like the groundwork for generative search. Algorithm changes are rewarding original content, and duplicate content is being heavily punished. An example of this would be Reddit ranking better in the recent core update because the content is unique, specific and clearly human-written. Whereas a ‘parasite SEO’ new site would see a significant dip in ranking under the latest update – because they post duplicate content for the most part.
Google wants to show the best, most unique results. Typically AI written content is not unique, and so human-written content is out-performing in rankings. It is also worth noting that AI-generated content is a violation of Google’s spam policies.
For your business, the best course of action is a brand trust audit by our SEO team, as well as a content strategy or content review. To ensure your content is original and your rankings are not negatively impacted. Contact us if you’d like to know more about these updates or what your business can do in light of them.
To understand the importance of core updates, we need to explain what Google really is: at its simplest Google is a huge bloody database. A collection of URLs and the information within them, stored on massive servers across the world.
Google has several algorithms working at any one time. Some are AI. Some are rule or formula-based. Some are next-gen language models. When someone types a search the first step is to understand the query, the second is to search the database for relevant answers.
The Google Search index contains hundreds of billions of webpages and is well over 100,000,000 gigabytes in size… and that’s data from two years ago, it will be much higher by now!
While they update regularly, core updates are imperative for Google to keep up with developing knowledge and databases. Google runs core updates every 3 to 6 months, they typically mean more major adjustments to algorithms.
This most recent core update seems like the groundwork for generative search. Algorithm changes are rewarding original content, and duplicate content is being heavily punished. An example of this would be Reddit ranking better in the recent core update because the content is unique, specific and clearly human-written. Whereas a ‘parasite SEO’ new site would see a significant dip in ranking under the latest update – because they post duplicate content for the most part.
Google wants to show the best, most unique results. Typically AI written content is not unique, and so human-written content is out-performing in rankings. It is also worth noting that AI-generated content is a violation of Google’s spam policies.
For your business, the best course of action is a brand trust audit by our SEO team, as well as a content strategy or content review. To ensure your content is original and your rankings are not negatively impacted. Contact us if you’d like to know more about these updates or what your business can do in light of them.
