Recap of the Google Algorithm Updates in 2024 and How to Plan for 2025
Google rolled out two major algorithm updates in 2024 that had many content marketers shaking in their boots — the March 2024 Core Update and the August 2024 Core Update.
Last year, many small website owners got hit hard by the helpful content update of September 2023. So many waited for the new ones with uncertainty and nothing but a prayer that they wouldn’t have to take another blow.
While many were negatively impacted, others weren’t. And the Google landscape evolved into an even more advanced version of E-E-A-T.
So here’s a recap of what happened with the March 2024 and August 2024 core updates and how to prepare your SEO strategy for 2025.
The March 2024 Core Update
Google rolled out the first core update of 2024 on March 5 and concluded it on April 19. The goal was to get low-quality content off the search engine results pages by reducing spam and content written purely for the algorithm and not for providing helpful, high-quality information.
They did this by implementing new ranking factors and systems.
The goal was to reduce low-quality content by 40%. And on April 26, they announced that they had done so by 45%.
In short: it worked. And here’s what it meant for content marketers.
1. Deemphasis on Links
Backlinks have been deemed a highly important ranking factor for years. But the March 2024 update changed this.
Too many smaller sites were taking advantage of bigger ones with higher domain authorities to win “high-quality” backlinks — a practice that was considered super normal not even a year ago.
If you’ve been in the SEO game for any time at all, you know this is one of the primary goals — if not the number one goal — of guest posting.
The problem? The content these trustworthy websites were accepting from third-party ones was way too often just…bad.
Here’s what Google said in the March 2024 Core Update announcement:
This doesn’t mean backlinks have no influence on ranking. They still do. But it influences relevancy more than quality.
What this means for content marketers is simple: if you’re going to keep link building in your SEO strategy, guest post on sites that have close relevancy to your own.
And if you allow guest posting on your site, set higher standards for what you accept. You’re not a backlink charity.
2. Publishing a Ton of Content Can Actually Hurt Your Rankings Now
The debate of whether AI helps or hurts content’s rankability has been waging for at least two years now.
But in March, Google basically said, “AI is smart. It’s sometimes hard to distinguish whether content is produced by humans or machines now. But we don’t care.”
Content produced at scale — whether AI- or human-generated — that doesn’t completely fulfill its duty of answering the searcher’s questions, is useless.
As content marketers, this means we should deprioritize our publishing frequency goals and focus on content depth.
AI — or even the abundant amount of real human writers — has made content production faster and easier.
But is that content really answering everything your reader wants to know about the topic? Can they walk away from your content not needing to read or watch anything else?
Results of the March 2024 Core Update
While Google did in fact achieve its goal of reducing low-quality content by 40% — exceeding it, actually — many content creators were negatively impacted by this update.
Many long-term creators who had been in the SEO game for years had multiple sites completely de-indexed. Several even received manual penalties, meaning the algorithm wasn’t de-indexing them — an actual person (from Google) was.
But many of these sites were also massively using AI to the point of near abuse, publishing multiple articles a day that were easily detectable and had no human touch.
(If you’re interested in going deeper into this, Alex Cooper shares more details in his YouTube video here:)
This doesn’t mean AI is bad or that it hurts your Google rankings — it goes back to point #2. Whether AI- or human-generated, mass-producing content that doesn’t fully satisfy the search intent simply is not helpful. It actually hurts you.
The August 2024 Core Update
The August 2024 Core Update started on August 15 and was completed on September 3.
But this update was different from the others because it was based on feedback Google received since rolling out the big “helpful content update” of September 2023 that impacted many small sites.
Here’s what Google said about their August 2024 update:
Unlike the March 2024 update, Google didn’t provide much context for the August one. Just that they were listening to content creators and trying to make algorithm changes that would help those negatively impacted by September 2023 recover. As long as their content was genuinely helpful and satisfied the user intent of the search query, obviously.
Results of the August 2024 Core Update
Google had good intentions (or so it seems). But unfortunately, the August 2024 update didn’t experience the same undeniable, shining success they brought home in March.
The goal was to help suffering independent websites hit by the helpful content update recover. But after the update had been completely rolled out, content marketing reporters like Search Engine Land came to the same conclusion: some sites recovered, but most either stayed the same or got even worse.
Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Land said this in his recap of the August 2024 rollout:
“Overall, it seems like while we saw some recoveries from the September helpful content in 2023, that was only for a few sites and limited recoveries. Most sites did not see significant or meaningful recoveries, from what we can tell. And even more sites saw even more declines or just stayed the same.” (Source)
And if you got hit?
Well, Google says there’s not much you can do. Just keep creating content that’s helpful and is written for humans, not search engines.
How to Prepare Your SEO Efforts for 2025 as a Content Marketer
Some of these outcomes from 2024 look grim. I agree.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t start dominating — or recovering — ranking positions in 2025 through renovated, modern SEO practices that will actually help you achieve your goals.
Now isn’t the time to get discouraged. In the past, us content marketers lived by checklists of on-page and off-page SEO tactics. We were told they’d get us the best chances of winning a top spot on the SERP.
But now more than ever, Google is helping us reinvent those checklists. They used to be filled with repetitive tasks like backlinking, including the keyword 1–2 times for every 100 words of content, etc.
Today, those checklists (should) look more like this:
- Does my content fully answer the question my reader is asking?
- Is there anything my competitors are covering in their content that I’m not?
- Is there an innovative solution that I can offer that no one else has offered yet?
- How can I make my solution better, more applicable, and easier to understand for my readers than what’s currently on the SERP?
- What follow-up questions does my reader have that I can answer right now?
- Realistically, is this the only guide they’ll need? Will they exit the page with an answer, or will they exit and then navigate back to the Google search bar again?
And so on.
With that spirit, here are some SEO trends to look forward to and plan for in 2025:
1. Leveraging AI as a powerful assistant, not a content creator replacement.
AI makes our lives easier. It helps us research and can even write full blog posts. But this is a classic example of just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
I’m in favor of AI. It’s helped me research and structure part of this article, but I’ve never once copied and pasted a sentence ChatGPT generated here. And I always fact-check.
However, I find it helpful for inspiration and summarizing my main points in one place.
When creating content, use AI for what it’s good at: automating, streamlining, researching, etc. But don’t replace your writers with it.
As we saw in the March 2024 update, sites that speed-wrote and bulk-published content with (or without) AI were hurt by the rollout, and some completely de-indexed.
2. E-E-A-T keeps getting more and more important.
The E-E-A-T algorithm update introduced in 2022 stays ruling the SEO kingdom. It stands for “Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.”
Content originality has to be a priority.
Use your expertise to provide education — this is where your data, statistics, research, and graphs add value to the content. But also place just as much importance on experience.
Search Engine Land recommends using your customer reviews and analyzing customer behavior to help lead your content strategy. Get to the bottom of what your people want and need, then give it to them.
To quote, Maria Georgieva said:
“To truly stand out, your brand must highlight the real human experience behind the content, adding authenticity and trustworthiness that users and search engines value.” (Source)
3. User intent is more important than keyword optimization
The recurring theme of the 2024 updates was the push to write for humans, not search engines.
Keyword optimization has taken a backseat and user intent has assumed captain.
What does your reader really want to get out of looking up their question on Google? That’s what you have to figure out, and that’s what you have to write for.
The best part about this is that user intent research doesn’t require any fancy, expensive tools like keyword research does.
The most effective way to do user intent research is to become the user — your reader.
Type in their search query, and see what appears. What solutions are already being provided, and which ones are missing?
Explore the first page of results, take notes, and then make your answer (content) better. And add to it by answering their follow-up questions, like what’s in the “People also ask” box or with a free site like AnswerThePublic.
Wrapping Up
2024 might’ve been rough for you. Or it might’ve been your golden year. But 2025 is bright — you just need to come in with the right strategies.
Learn from the developments of last year, and look forward to the upcoming ones. Google is constantly evolving, so we as content marketers and writers have to evolve, too.
Brooke Bagley is a freelance writer and content marketer with five years of experience. She’s had the privilege of being mentored by thought leader Julia McCoy in the early stages of her career, starting out as a passionate writer working for pennies per word in two content agencies. A year later, she left agency work and started her personal brand and has since worked with numerous clients in the B2B marketing and SaaS industries, such as QuanticMind and SpytecGPS.
