April 2024: getting your visibility back after the March core update

Covers April 2024. Part of our search timeline: a month-by-month look at the changes that shaped SEO, AI search, paid ads and social media, written in November 2026 for local businesses with the benefit of hindsight.

Looking back from November 2026, April 2024 was when many site owners stopped waiting and started reviewing. For a local trades business, recovery usually came down to a few honest questions about each page on the site.

What happened once the rollout ended?

Google confirmed the update was complete and said that, together with its spam changes, it had cut a significant amount of low-quality content from search results. Plenty of sites spent the months that followed going through their content.

Why recovery was hard for some local firms

For UK businesses that had been hit, getting back on track relied on an honest look at their content rather than quick fixes. The most frequent issue was content created for search engines instead of for customers.

A common case is a builder with twenty near-identical town pages, each one swapping in a different place name. Those pages tell a homeowner almost nothing new, and a single, detailed page backed by real projects tends to serve them far better.

A simple content audit you can run

• List every page with its traffic and its job, and mark those that offer little value.
• Strengthen your key pages with input from people who do the work, original examples from real jobs and a clearer layout.
• Combine articles that overlap into one stronger guide, then redirect the old URLs to it.

Frequently asked questions

How can I spot unhelpful pages on my website?

Check for pages that get very few visits, have a high bounce rate, repeat or barely cover their subject, or are not written for any obvious reader.

Is it a good idea to rewrite content with AI after a core update?

Only if someone with real expertise edits it. Running thin pages through AI without adding anything of value seldom makes a difference.

Sources and further reading

• Google Search Central: what core updates mean for your site

Want help with this? We audit and rebuild service pages so they actually help customers, through our content marketing service. Get in touch.