Google Rolled Out New Updates for December 2024

Google rolled out two key updates in December: the central core update began on December 12th and concluded in just six days, and a special update focused on its spam algorithm.

December Core Update 

This update generated a lot of buzz among SEO experts, as it came barely a month after the main November update. Google explained through X (formerly Twitter) that this action is part of its continuous effort to improve different fundamental systems of its search engine.

Unlike other updates, this one was implemented quickly, in just six days, and caused noticeable volatility in third-party tracking tools, which saw a significant increase in results. However, expectations for recovery with this new update are low for websites that had already been penalized in the November update.

Anti-Spam 

A day after completing the main December update, Google rolled out an update again: anti-spam update December 2024. "The December 2024 anti-spam update has been released and applies globally to all languages. Implementation may take up to a week to complete", Google wrote.

Google said this update will take about a week to roll out. The rollout is occurring just before the holiday season but should not affect most sites, as it only targets sites that violate Google's spam policies.

In Google's documentation explaining some of the details of this update, you can read that “We occasionally make noticeable improvements to how it works. When we do, we call it a spam update and share it when it happens in our list of Google Search ranking updates.” They also discuss their system to monitor spam sites: "SpamBrain is our artificial intelligence-based spam prevention system. From time to time, we improve that system to detect spam better and to ensure that it detects new types of spam."

The latest spam update was performed on June 20, 202,4, and took seven days to complete.