Core Update · high impact ·
March 2024: Core Update and New Spam Policies
Google's biggest ranking change in years: it merged the Helpful Content System into core ranking and added three new spam policies, over an unusually long 45-day rollout.
The March 2024 core update was Google's most significant ranking change in years. It integrated the previously separate Helpful Content System directly into core ranking and rolled out over an unusually long 45 days (5 Mar to 19 Apr 2024), with Google aiming to cut unhelpful, unoriginal content in results by around 40%. For Wix owners this made site-wide content quality a core ranking factor, so thin or mass-produced pages can weigh down a whole domain. Alongside it Google launched new spam policies covering scaled content abuse, expired domain abuse and site reputation abuse.
Other recent updates
- August 2026 Spam Update: A Google spam update refreshing the automated systems that detect and demote content breaking Google's spam policies, 18 Aug 2026 to 20 Aug 2026.
- June 2026 Spam Update: A Google spam update refreshing the automated systems that detect and demote content breaking Google's spam policies, 24 Jun 2026 to 26 Jun 2026.
- May 2026 Core Update: A broad Google core update reassessing overall content quality and relevance across the index, rolled out 21 May 2026 to 2 Jun 2026.
- March 2026 Core Update: A broad Google core update reassessing overall content quality and relevance across the index, rolled out 27 Mar 2026 to 8 Apr 2026.