Core Update Comes in Like a Lion

+ other newsworthy March updates ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  [View in Browser]( [Log in ▸]( Hi {NAME} - January and February were fairly steady rankings-wise, but all that changed as March rolled around. Let’s dig into the biggest SEO news that we’ve come across this month. Core Update + Spam Update = Rankings Havoc This is (are they done yet?) a big one, folks. While SEOs and webmasters have come to expect a core update towards the end of Q1, this month’s was a doozy. Not only did we get a massive core update affecting multiple ranking systems, but there are now three new spam policies as well. What are the spam policies targeting, you ask? - Expired domain abuse: buying an expired domain and filling it with thin content to take advantage of previous domain reputation - Scaled content abuse: filling a site with large amounts of “unoriginal content”, whether AI generated or human written, purely to manipulate search rankings - Site reputation abuse: third-party content hosted on a site that is not relevant to the site’s intended audience (e.g. a medical site with a page about "best casinos") “As this is a complex update, the rollout may take up to a month. It's likely there will be more fluctuations in rankings than with a regular core update, as different systems get fully updated and reinforce each other,” notes Chris Nelson from the Google Search Quality team. [Read the full release notes here.]( As with every core update, this is a good time to audit your site – technical elements, on-page content, and link-building strategy. If you’ve been hit hard by this round of updates, contact our team and we can dig into what might be holding you bac - no charge. Just reply to this email. New Screaming Frog Feature Finds Link Opps With Google placing increasing emphasis on helpful content, it’s tempting to add more articles to your site to compete in the SERPs. However, many don’t consider how that new content connects to your core pages and why it’s important that it does. Enter Screaming Frog’s new Custom Search feature. According to [this thread on X/Twitter]( this tool can search for specific text (hello anchors!) to help you find internal linking opportunities across the entire site. This feature is helpful for large sites that have accumulated a lot of content – internal links help the search algorithm find, understand, and index all pages on a site. It is also immensely helpful for SEOs who don’t want to read through every. single. article. in order to add internal links and help push that all-important PageRank through the site. Where Did You Come From? Where Did You Go? The Data Says… Ever wonder where your traffic comes from? So did the audience research platform SparkToro. Earlier this month, the company released a massive research study in partnership with Datos, a clickstream data provider. Conducted from Jan 2023 – Jan 2024, the study aimed to find out exactly how much traffic is being sent to the open web and who is doing the sending. Here’s a graph of their findings: [The Web's Largest Traffic Referrers Jan 2024]( In a shock to absolutely no one, Google is the top source of US web referral traffic at just over 63%. That’s more than two-thirds of all tracked traffic and almost 10x more than the next-biggest referrer – Microsoft at a whopping 7%. What’s most interesting is that the study also looks at who sends traffic to “the little guys” – basically anyone who is outside of the top 170 most-visited sites on the American web. Turns out, Facebook (3.36%) and Reddit (2.39%) are some of the top sources of traffic for these websites. Who knew? Bottom line: Google is still the top dog, and it’s important to consider your audience's demographics. Ready to dive into the data? [Read the full study here.]( And that wraps up our SEO finds for this month! What did you think? Anything we missed? As always, reply and let us know your thoughts.  Adam Steele Partner & COO / [loganix.com]( Your premium SEO partner for agencies & in-house teams. [Book a Strategy Call](   Choose from over 15+ services (starting from just $7), [place your order now]( >> Not interested in this email? [Click here]( to let us know your email preferences or [unsubscribe](. Loganix, Inc., 13110 NE 177th Pl, Woodinville, Washington 98072, United States