Google’s December Core Update

In early December, Google announced and released a new algorithm update called the December Core Update, with significant implications for organic traffic and rankings.

Google rolled out the update over the course of two weeks starting on December 3rd. The impact was higher than the substantial May update. MozCast has recorded one of its highest-ever volatility ratings of 112 on the 3rd.

For the moment, it looks like the most affected industries were Health, Real-Estate, Travel, and Finance.

Some low authority sites seem to be thriving after the update. However, the biggest winners are ultra-authoritative websites taking even more of the top 5 positions. This has pushed medium level websites down in rankings.

We have also seen issues during the update, including spammy properties taking the top three positions for some keywords. We believe that it’s still possible that Google may rollback some of these changes.

CommonMind clients can always check the impact on their organic rankings by checking our SEO tracker. If you need help accessing the tracker, just let me know.

Others are also welcome to reach out for help, or consider a tool like Ahrefs for keyword tracking and other SEO insights.