Impact of Google December 2024 Core Update

Google constantly improves its algorithms to deliver the most relevant and valuable content to users. It recently completed its fourth and final update of 2024 from December 12 to December 18. This update comes immediately after the November 2024 core update, which ended on December 5. This was a general core update in which Google updated its core ranking system.

What is Google Core Update?

Google makes changes many times a year to improve its search algorithm or search engine optimization strategies and system which is referred to as core updates. These core updates may or may not affect the website ranking and traffic. Google has given 6-7 updates this year from March 2024 to December 2024. These updates help to improve the security and reliability of Android devices, tablets, and Chrome OS devices. 

To check the effect of Google updates on your site: First, check the rollout start and end date. Wait for a week to finish the core update and then compare your website with a week before this update. In this way, you’ll be able to analyze the changes. 

If you see a small drop in ranking like from 2 to 4 then you don’t have any need to change but for a large drop, you will have to take a deeper assessment.

What are Google Algorithms?

Google’s algorithm is a complex system of rules used to gain data from the search index and deliver return the best possible results for a query. Google search engine use a combination of algorithms and ranking factors to deliver relevant content. 

Google Spam Policies

Google introduced three new spam policies against harmful practices that we have seen become increasingly popular, they are expired domain abuse, scaled content abuse, and site reputation abuse.

What is expired domain abuse? Expired domain abuse refers to a case where domain names belonging to expired websites are purchased and processed for some other purpose, mostly to influence search rankings, that give little or no value to the user.

What is content abuse? Content that is published in quantity but is designed mainly to influence search rankings and hardly meets user needs. 

What is site reputation abuse? It occurs when pages are published on a third-party site with little or no first-party involvement, and the goal is to affect search rankings by using ranking signals from the first-party site.

What are Google Search spam updates?

Google makes sure that your site does not appear in search engines due to any misleading behavior as spam sites can harm users. Google’s automated system constantly detects search spam and it also makes improvements in its working system for better results and to help ensure it analyzes new types of spam which are called spam updates. 

What to do if the site detects any change after the spam update?

After seeing changes due to span updates, sites should check Google’s spam policies to ensure that they follow those policies. Violating policies may result in a drop-down in the ranking or disappear from search results. If Google’s automated systems get to know that the site obeys their spam policies then the site may improve by making changes but it is not possible in the case of link spam update.

When will you see an impact on results after making changes?

It can take anywhere from a few days to several months to see an impact on search results after making changes. Google checks whether a site is producing helpful, trustworthy, and people-first content over a long period. And if there is no impact, you should wait for the next update.

2024 Google Updates

Google’s most recent update started on 19 December 2024 is December 2024 spam update that will complete in almost 1 week. It focuses on upgradation to a different set of core systems, marking it as more considerable. This rollout aligns with other major announcements from Google, including Gemini 2.0 Flash features for AI Overviews and Sundar Pichai’s statement that indicates transformative changes for Google Search in 2025. 

March 2024 Google Core Update Impact

The March 2024 Core Update was released to increase the quality of search, showing less of the type of content designed for clicks and more of the content that people find useful. They have also shared new spam policies that gave them better tools to deal with practices that can harm Google’s search results. However, there may be more fluctuations in rankings than with a normal core update, as this redistribution will give time to fully update and reinforce each other. 

August 2024 core update 

The August Core Update was introduced to improve the quality of our search results showing more content that is useful for people and less content that is only made for appearing in search results. This latest update has been done according to some of the feedback from creators and others over the last few months. They want to connect people to high-quality sites that create useful, original content relevant to users’ searches. This update was also done to better capture improvements that sites may have made. 

Google Targets Deepfake Update

Google launched the Explicit Fake Content updated on July 31, 2024, aimed to remove non-consensual explicit content, primarily targeting artificially generated images and videos called ‘deepfakes’ from search results. According to Google, these updates helped to reduce the issue of explicit fake content. 

December 2024 Spam Update

This update started on 19 December 2024 and has not been completed yet. It has impacted the sites more than the November core update 2024. This update drop-down the results of the sites that were working on multiple niches.