Google’s latest core update is de-indexing AI-driven websites and reducing rankings for sites with unoriginal or low-value content over the next few weeks, according to a March 5 announcement. Let’s take a look at why this is happening and what you can do to protect your website and content.
Why is Google De-Indexing AI-Driven Websites?
Google has always sought to keep spammy or low-value content out of search results.
Unfortunately, many businesses and brands still attempt to manipulate rankings through high-volume publishing. In recent years, these bad actors have turned to generative AI tools like ChatGPT to produce unoriginal content at scale in the hopes of rising to the top of Google’s results pages.
With this Google core update, the aim is to crack down on websites that are abusing large-scale content publishing. They’re targeting sites that are unhelpful, have a poor user experience, or appear to be created for search engines rather than people. According to a statement from Google Product Manager Elizabeth Tucker, these updates should “reduce low-quality, unoriginal content in search results by 40%.”
How Businesses Are Being Impacted by Google De-Indexing AI-Driven Websites
If your website already has unique messaging and a modern user experience, you shouldn’t experience any negative effects. That said, short-term results might fluctuate over the next month or so as the core update is finalized.
In fact, this change could benefit your business significantly. With Google de-indexing AI-driving websites and restating their commitment to original, high-value content, websites like yours should rise organically as spammy, low-value sites are cleared from your path.
If your website is full of AI-generated content, however, the prognosis is not so rosy.
According to Tucker, “low-value, third-party content produced primarily for ranking purposes and without close oversight of a website owner [will be considered] spam. We’re publishing this policy two months in advance of enforcement on May 5 to give site owners time to make any needed changes.”
How Businesses Can Avoid Website Takedowns
Google’s fundamental recommendations for rising in search engine rankings haven’t changed; they want you to publish helpful, reliable, people-first content. Text generated by tools like ChatGPT doesn’t create value in the same way as human-produced content. The latter leverages the writer’s unique knowledge and expertise.
Has your online presence has relied on AI-generated content until now? If so, the best course of action is to replace your website and marketing outputs with compliant messaging and infrastructure.
Google’s Guidelines & Brand Journalism
Google looks for four essentials to determine a company or website’s credibility: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EEAT). Meeting all four standards requires a strategic approach to both copy and a brand’s online presence.
For example, Experience and Expertise can be addressed through unique quotes and statistics on website pages and in blog posts. For Authority and Trustworthiness, however, the algorithms consider contextual clues. These include backlinks from other websites, user-generated reviews, and other elements beyond the brand’s immediate control.
Brand Journalism: KWSM’s Authentic Approach to Content
At KWSM, our Brand Journalism approach to marketing includes EEAT and strategic storytelling to help companies achieve their goals.
KWSM’s in-house team of content creators includes copywriters who are extensively trained in our story-first approach to marketing and what it takes to adhere to Google’s guidelines for useful content. For example, many of our website pages and marketing outputs include relevant quotes, original statistics, or case study information to satisfy EEAT requirements.
In conclusion, if you’ve trusted AI to perform content creation on your behalf, time is running out to reverse course. Soon, Google will slam the door on your website’s ability to draw traffic.
Do you need a strategic and compliant approach to building your online presence? The KWSM team can help you navigate Google’s complexities and achieve sustainable success.
