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Google’s December 2024 core update was more volatile than the previous one

Google’s December 2024 core update was more volatile than the previous one

Google December 2024 Core Update started on December 12, 2024 and completed approximately 6 days later on December 18, 2024. As a reminder, every core update confirmed by Google means that ranking changes from the core update should be visible enough for Google to announce it. That being said, the December 2024 core update was more volatile and more widespread than the November 2024 Core Updatebut less than the August And March 2024 main updates, according to data providers.

One thing to note, the rollout of the December main update happened over a short period of 6 days, while the November main update happened over a period of 24 days.

Understand that if a core update affects a site, it can cause a huge change in that site’s search visibility. So I don’t want to diminish the main updates in November or December; these could have been very important to you or to the sites you manage.

Spam update and manual actions during/after. Also, to keep things interesting. Google published the December 2024 Anti-Spam Update the day after the end of the December 2024 core update, this anti-spam updater is still rolling out. So this can make looking at the data a bit complex. Additionally, Google has expanded its site reputation abuse policy at the time Google was rolling out this November 2024 core update. This led to a fair number of websites, both large and small, being hit by manual action (Google search penalty), in some cases resulting in a lot of loss of visibility for these sites in Google search.

Data Providers on Google’s December 2024 Core Update

Similar website. SimilarWeb Seismometer SERP showed significant spikes in volatility with the December update. It took a few days after the December main update was announced, but the volatility showed. “Although the December update was announced on December 12, significant fluctuations were first observed starting on December 14,” Similarweb’s Shay Harel told us.

Similarweb DecemberSimilarweb December

When you compare previous core updates to this December 2024 core update, you can see that it was more volatile than the November 2024 core update but less volatile than the August and 2024 core updates. of March. Here is this table:

Similarweb December CompareSimilarweb December Compare

The relative position change was also higher with this December core update compared to the November core update:

Similar Web PositionSimilar Web Position

When you compare the top 3, 5, and 10 positions, you see the same trend: the December core update was larger than the November core update.

Similar Website Broken TopSimilar Website Broken Top

When it comes to specific industries, Shay Harel told us: “When analyzing the healthcare, finance, retail and travel niches, the finance niche saw low levels of fluctuations in the first 3 results. In contrast, the healthcare niche showed similar levels of SERP fluctuations in the top 3 and 5 results.

Semrush. Semrush (our parent company) also sent us data that seemed to show that the December Main Update was more volatile than the November 2024 Core Update. But as company spokesperson Mordy Obserstein told us: “Between the number of updates and the level of volatility seen before the updates, they make it really, really difficult to decouple volatility and creating accurate comparisons between updates. »

That being said, here is the graph of The Semrush sensor which tracks volatility over the last 30 days or so and shows much higher volatility with the December main update compared to the November main update:

Semrush 3Semrush 3

The following chart shows that the December 2024 main update reaches higher peak volatility levels than the November update:

Pic SemrushPic Semrush

They also broke down volatility by sector in the following chart, comparing December to November. You can see how the December update was more volatile than the November update, across all sectors:

Semrush Advanced IndustrySemrush Advanced Industry

Additionally, the December 2024 core update saw an average position gain/loss of around 2.8 positions, which is a bit higher than the 2.4 we saw with the update. november :

Semrush position changeSemrush position change

Other tools. There are many Google search ranking volatility tools. This is what they looked like after the core update rollout was complete and during the update:

Advanced Web Rankings:

Advanced Web Ranking 3Advanced Web Ranking 3

Cognitive SEO:

Cognitiveso 1Cognitiveso 1

Algoroo:

Algoroo 1Algoroo 1

SERPstat:

Serpstat1Serpstat1

Accuranker:

Accuranker 1Accuranker 1

Mangoes:

Mangoes 1Mangoes 1

winch operator:

Winch operator 1Winch operator 1

Mozcast:

Mozcast3Mozcast3

Sistrix:

Sister 1Sister 1

seoClarity:

SEO Clarity 1SEO Clarity 1

Industry. From what I followed with the community, this update seemed fell rapidly and significantlyand continued to be super volatile throughout the 6 days of deployment. The data from the data providers listed above is what the SEO industry was seeing.

And now with the Rolling out the December 2024 anti-spam updateGoogle still seems volatile.

What to do if you are affected. Google has given some advice on what to consider if you’ve been negatively affected by a core update in the past. Google hasn’t really given much new advice here.

  • There are no specific actions to take to recover. A negative ranking impact may not indicate anything is wrong with your pages.
  • Google offered a list of questions to consider if your site is affected by a core update.
  • Google said you may see a slight recovery between major updates, but the biggest change would happen after another major update.

In short, write content that is useful for people, not to rank in search engines.

  • “There is nothing new or special that creators need to do for this update as long as they have created satisfying content for people. For those who might not be equally ranked, we strongly encourage reading our create useful, trustworthy, people-focused content help page,” Google said previously.

Learn more about Google updates

You can read more about our coverage in Search Engine Land’s History of Google Algorithm Updates.

Why we care. While the data above shows how sites in general are performing with the latest major update, it does not represent how your individual site performed with the update. If your site was affected by this past update, it can be devastating. If you have been affected by previous updates and therefore no improvement with this update, again, this is devastating yet again. But some sites have seen big improvements.

Feel free to compare this to our December Core Update Report.

We hope you have seen improvements.