Google Core March 2023 Not Just E-A-T

By now you know about the Google Core March 2023 roll out. It started March 15, 2023 and is stated that it “may take up to 2 weeks to complete” as per Google’s Search Central.

Some of the rumors are pointing towards E-A-T (Expertise – Authoritativeness – Trustworthiness) or the newer E-E-A-T (which adds Experience) as being a big component, which it may be.

Since the first week of a core update is usually people putting out content to help narrow down what it may entail, here’s my input.

I went down a rabbit hole doing competitive research and found multiple “Chiropractor Website” companies that use the same content on every site, and just swap out the company name “most of the time” and sometimes add internal links (maybe this rounds out their SEO package offering). I know of niche health sites (dentists, massage therapists) that do the same and will do some research into them shortly.

At 98% duplicate content these sites don’t even brush the surface of E-A-T since the company that the website represents has zero input.

Monkey Wrench: At this point I want to point out that chiropractor websites with 98% duplicate content are still ranking very high, if not #1.

The easiest way to find yourself down this rabbit hole is to take a sentence, usually from the home page, that looks very generic and search for it in Google in quotes.

Example: “This article will help you learn the basics of chiropractic care.” 

I can’t blame Chiropractors for using a service that provides them content, their job is not SEO, it’s to get more clients.

Here’s a screenshot of 3 of the estimated 3980 results for the above sentence:

Let’s take a few of these and check their Organic Keywords in SEMRush (not an affiliate link).

Note: the highest converting keyword phrases for a Chiropractic website is location based “chiropractor [location]”.

Examples:

• Chiropractor San Diego
• Chiropractor 33304

This rollout is still only 4 days old at the time of writing this, and the chiropractor/healthcare niche’s may be a later part of this rollout or not at all.

So where does this leave us when trying to focus on E-A-T when sites with 98% duplicate content are the ones ranked first? It’s more than just the content.

I wanted to point out, as has been stated before by Google and on many other SEO sites “Duplicate Content is a Myth” … But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do Unique Content.

• Search Engine Journal – 26 Common SEO Myths, Debunked
• Google – Demystifying the “duplicate content penalty”

Google has and continues to state every time there is an update that, “If you were hit, it is not your content, and there’s nothing you can [probably] do.”

I disagree, because at the same time the industry keeps showing that you are better off updating old content than writing something new.

Keep on testing my friends.