Google-Core Update 2024

A profound revolution in the SEO market: the new Google Core Update 2024

The market leader Google is currently causing a sensation with a new, revolutionary update. Rather, these are two different updates: the Google Core Update and the Google Spam Update, which fundamentally improve two important functions of the search engine. On the one hand, the quality of the search results is to be increased many times over. Furthermore, the main objective of this cross-system software modernization is to fish out bad page content and search result pages from the pool of web-based options from the outset. You can find out how this works and what potential the new Google Core Update will bring in June here.

Definition of the term update

An update is an update of an existing software package which, as a successor model, is a significant improvement on the previous model. In this context, there are two different types of software updates that can be distinguished from each other in information technology:

• security update, reduces data leaks and closes security gaps that are in the foreground. This update therefore serves the purpose of data security.
• Firmware updates, or firmware updates, are used for operational and data security within the operating system and are designed for cell phones, PCs and tablets alike.

The purpose of a software update

The Google Core Update as well as any other software update serves to optimize the current operating system. As already mentioned, the focus is either on updating the firmware itself or on its security-related system relevance. In this context, either the operating system, the security software or the firmware is updated. Furthermore, an update may contain functional enhancements that include program execution speed, design or other significant optimization options. Before any update is ready for the market, it is put through its paces. As a rule, various alpha and beta versions of the software package are made available to a specific group of users who test the program and its functions to ensure that they are free of errors. As a rule, this applies in particular to driver updates. In contrast to an upgrade, which involves the expansion of internal operating hardware, an update is therefore intended exclusively for the improvement of software packages. The following changes may be systemically relevant:

• General improvement of the functionality of a software can be ensured by implementing new functions, changing existing functions or deleting old functions.
• Change in operational safety by removing programming errors.
• Improving data security by closing observed security gaps and data leaks.

Scope of a software update

The regular Google Core Update has been in operation in its current form since 2018. Depending on the type and size of the software update carried out, this may involve minor bug fixes or a complete overhaul of a known operating software. The Google Core Update, which will be released in 2024, makes no difference in this respect and is based on the following parameters:

• Hotfix includes a small change to the software. This usually repairs execution errors within the software package or closes known security leaks.
• A patch is a small functional adjustment that focuses on the initial state of a specific software version.
• Update is the modernization of a larger number of individual patches, which leads to an adjustment of minor version numbers. This in turn means that the new version of a software is marked with the main version number.

Google and its updates: since 2003, always geared towards modernization

Internet giant Google has been number one on the market for years and wants to keep it that way in the future. In this context, the search engine is optimized on an almost daily basis, which initially has little relevance for the individual user. According to Google employees, this involves around 600 optimization steps in the Google algorithm each year. These small software optimizations differ from the Google Core Update in terms of size, relevance and function. While the Google Core Update primarily involves a comprehensive adjustment of the so-called ranking factors, smaller system updates serve the following purpose:

• Recurring or regular up to daily updates serve to improve the results of the current system program.
• With the help of technical updates, internal programs are adapted in terms of security (SSL), loading speed and mobile capability.
• Updates that take up and incorporate the legal standards and conditions of a country.
• Updates that optimize the input and lead to an improvement of the search query. These can also take action against external manipulation (e.g. backlink or black-hard SEO).

List of Google Update and Google Core Update since 2003

Since 2003, Google has been offering its users software optimizations, some of which have well-known or less well-known names. The Google Update Core Startup, which is responsible for the Google ranking, plays a very important role insofar as this is no less important as an advertising measure for the consumer. The sales figures of a medium-sized, large or small company as well as those of a larger company or even a group are therefore dependent on this model. Google is therefore increasingly focusing on transparency when it comes to precisely describing its firmware. This also applies to the annual software updates, which are usually published promptly. Here, a distinction is made between minor updates and system-relevant adjustments that seem important to everyone. For example, a small Google update called “Cassandra” in 2003 was aimed solely at accurately analyzing hidden links and co-domains. The “Florida” update introduced in November of the same year, which was primarily launched to combat SEO spam tactics, was far more far-reaching in this respect. This was intended to protect website operators from losses in ranking, which mainly involved keyword stuffing and the search for hidden links. Other important updates to date are:

• Supplemental Update was first used in 2006 and leads to a general improvement of index and filter.
• In 2007, Universal Search led to an expansion of Google search with regard to images, videos and website platforms in general.
• Real-Time Search is an optimization that has been implementing Google News and social media sources in indexed pages since 2009.
• Panda, one of Google’s best-known updates, was introduced in 2011 to filter out pages with sparse content, mass linking and websites with excessive advertising.
• Penguin, one of Google’s most important updates after Panda, has been actively combating keyword stuffing, black-hat techniques and link spam since 2012.
• Hummingbird is an update introduced in 2014 which, like the Google Update Core Startup, primarily affects the core of the search algorithm. This takes keywords and long-tail search queries into account in Google searches.
• Pigeon was also introduced in 2014 and was a new ranking algorithm for local search results.
• HTTPS/SSL Update is responsible for giving pages with encryption a ranking bonus as well.
• Google Core Update 2016 focused for the first time on the quality of content and not its volume
• Google Speed Update 2018 evaluates and analyzes the loading pages of mobile websites.

The Google Core Update: a must for every website operator since 2016

In contrast to many other smaller updates, system-relevant updates or other updates, Google Core Updates affect the core algorithm. This aims to improve the general quality of the search results displayed. The core update is therefore not dependent on individual ranking factors and does not have a clearly defined scope. To be more specific, the core does not refer to the new technology, which is often associated with a higher ranking factor. According to Google, the primary goal is to list relevant and trustworthy pages for the Internet community. Every Google Core update is therefore announced well in advance and described transparently on almost every social media page.

The March 2024 Core Update & March 2024 Spam Update

The Core & Spam Update 2024 introduced by Google in March deepens its remit in favor of the quality of search results pages. Expressed in figures, there is talk of a 40 percent search improvement, which aims to structurally filter out spam from all search queries. This is intended to increase traffic for relevant websites and favor content. This works as follows:

• Adjustment of the core ranking system in favor of users, in which pages written for search engines instead of the readership are severely restricted.
• Adaptation of the spam guidelines, which take massive action against manipulative behavior in search engine optimization. Together with the core update, better hit lists can therefore be generated.
• Penalizing the mass production of content serves the goal of promoting quality over quantity, regardless of whether it is AI-generated or human-produced websites. Furthermore, the aim is to exclude texts without content which, instead of answering a question, revolve exclusively around the topic.
• Reduction of third-party content on generally all large websites that are mainly affiliate content. This in turn means that any integration of supposedly objective product tests into websites with which commissions are earned should be avoided.
• Strict action against the misuse of expired domains, which are used to push low-quality content to the top of the Google search bar.

Google rollout 2023 & 2024

The years 2023 and 2024 are a turning point in Google’s corporate policy with regard to the quality of human or AI-generated websites and content in general. Major system changes are now on the horizon, which began with the introduction of a comprehensive product review update at the start of 2023. The Google software, which had previously only been trained on English-language texts, included other languages from this point on. In this context, websites that use product reviews and test reports in particular were primarily affected. After several optimizations in 2023, the following trends were identified after the first major rollout:

1. Websites that contain more user-generated content shot up the rankings and gained a lot of visibility.
2. While websites that focused on unique content or a specific topic were heavily promoted. Websites that only portray reviews, on the other hand, suffered losses. According to experts, the recently added “Experience” factor was mainly responsible for this result.
3. Websites that perform well in the area of E-E-A-T, such as government and educational institutions, are rated positively in the Google ranking.

Improvements to the Core & Spam Update 2024

The market strategy that Google now pursues or rewards is now: individual and unique results. This in turn means that the Google software will show substantial improvements in Google search after the rollout in 2024. New and improved spam guidelines have also been drawn up and announced for this purpose. According to Google, the integration of the 2022 Helpful Content Update was the main reason for this. The findings and results obtained here were integrated into the core algorithm and lead to a 40 percent increase in quality. As the implementation of the updates is far more complex than the previous ones, users should prepare themselves for significantly greater fluctuations in the ranking over the next few months. It should be noted that, unlike the core update, the spam update is expected to be completed in two weeks. The following spam guidelines have been integrated into the spam update in this context:

• Exclusion of scaled content, i.e. content whose data set and quantity was produced in large numbers.
• Site Reputation Abuse, which means that websites that place inferior content on a third-party domain are excluded or downgraded. This is also known as Parasite SEO.
• Downgrading of expired domains that aim to push inferior content in the ranking.

What are Google’s plans for the future?

The tech giant Google turned 25 in September last year. While the Group concentrated exclusively on the search engine at the time, this has since changed considerably. Now the motto is: AI, AI and more AI. With a total of 45 search queries per minute and 3.5 billion queries in a single day, the core competence still lies in the processing and provision of information, but a new story is being written with the help of newly defined AI principles. It says: “AI has given us every opportunity to become even better technologically in the future. This noble approach is somewhat older and was already actively implemented in 2001 with the integration of machine learning by users for spelling correction. In 2006, another important step towards AI-generated text was ensured with the help of Google Translate. Other important milestones for the company were TensorFlow and TPUs to make AI more efficient. While AlphaFold solved the problem of protein folding in 2020, it was ultimately Bard 2023 that supported the collaboration with generative AI. Also in 2023, it is the Transformer-based language model PaLM2, a new chatbot that is set to further advance the future of AI.

Google continues to expand its market empire

In the future, Google executives will increasingly focus on so-called “ambient computing”. This in turn means bundling and jointly coordinating all hardware and software resources and networks. As a result, Google wants to accompany its users everywhere. The focus here is on controlling various devices via an operating system so that they can be connected and synchronized with each other. Whether smartwatches, Chromebooks or Google Home, the company wants to be everywhere in the future. Whether this will turn out to be a good thing for the individual themselves, however, can only be estimated at present.

Another market strategy that Google mainly pursues is to bind network users to their device. With positive pricing models, the Group wants to implement affordable hardware such as Chromebooks primarily in schools and educational establishments in order to gain a say here. As a result, learning content is increasingly being created digitally so that everyone tends to have the same educational opportunity. According to the laws of learning, however, this should be viewed critically.

Google would also like to become more involved in e-commerce and the hardware sector in the future. However, the focus is not on producing the corresponding device itself, but on equipping the corresponding device manufacturer with Google-based software. This is already the case in many devices. Finally, the company began placing its well-known Google Ads for online marketing offline back in 2017. The Group is thus attempting to enter the large offline advertising market in addition to its well-known online advertising. This turns a former software company into a market strategist who has his fingers in almost every pie.