Google finished its November 2024 core update on December 5, 2024. The update started on November 11, 2024, and took 24 days to complete.
Google shared the news of the update’s completion on its social media accounts and the Google Search Status Dashboard.
This was a regular core update. These updates help improve the quality of search results. After the update started, many people in the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) world noticed changes in website rankings. These changes became more visible in the last week of November.
By early December, many websites had seen clear movement in their SERP (Search Engine Results Page) rankings.
This update was not as strong as some older updates, but it still affected many sites. If a site is hit by this update, its ranking in Google search results may drop a lot.
Google did not give much new advice for websites that were affected. Like other core updates, this one also tries to show more helpful and useful content to users. So, websites should focus on creating high-quality, helpful content that answers what users are searching for.
If your website lost rankings, it may be because other websites have better content. You should check the websites that are now ranking better than yours and see how you can improve your own content.
Announcement of the Update
Google announced this update on November 11, 2024. The rollout was expected to take about two weeks, but it took a little longer. This was Google’s third core update in 2024, following another one in August 2024.
Google explained that this update is part of their plan to make search results more helpful. On its LinkedIn page, Google said the update is to show more useful content and less content that is only made to rank well in Google.
This message is important for website owners and marketers. It reminds them to focus on user-first content, not just content that performs well in search engines. Content should be helpful, clear, and made for real people. Regular updates and checking of pages can help websites avoid problems from such updates.
Google also said on X (formerly Twitter) that they will soon add this update to their ranking release history page and give more updates if needed.
Lessons from Past Core Updates
Last year’s November 2023 core update caused big problems for many websites, especially during the holiday season. Some sites lost a lot of traffic and sales. A few websites did not recover until the next core update in 2024. This shows that core updates can greatly affect business performance.
Who Was Affected the Most?
Some types of websites saw bigger changes during the November 2023 update, and it’s possible similar sites were impacted in 2024 too:
- Health and Medical Sites: These sites saw a lot of ranking changes. Google wants health-related content to be high-quality and trustworthy, since it affects people’s lives.
- E-commerce Websites: Online stores and review sites saw visibility changes. This is because Google also updated how it looks at product reviews.
- Small Personal Blogs: Some small blogs saw traffic drops. This may be because Google is now giving more value to authoritative sources.
Not all websites in these categories were affected. Sites that follow good SEO practices and make people-first content are more likely to do well, even during core updates.
What to Do If Your Site Was Affected
If your rankings dropped after this update:
- Wait one week after the update ends before making any changes.
- Check how your site was doing before and after the update using Google Search Console.
- If your site dropped only a little (like from position 2 to 4), you don’t need big changes.
- If the drop is big:
- Check where the drop happened in web search, images, video, or news.
- Compare your content to top-ranking sites. See how their content is better and try to improve yours.
