The year 2024 ended on a high note. As usual, Google didn't disappoint, turning the search results upside down with one of its algorithm updates. The big difference? There were practically 3 in a row. Their impact? We will be able to assess it in 2025, so having a good strategy will be essential.
It has become customary for Google to launch at least two major updates each year: one in the first half of the year and another towards the end of the year. The surprise this time is that Google has released two updates in a row, only a month apart, and of the Core update type, which are the most important and deepest. And therefore the ones that cause the biggest changes and can have the biggest impact on all websites.
In addition, Google also released a SPAM update on 19 December. 3 updates in a row within 40 days to say goodbye to 2024 and welcome in 2025 with an SEO earthquake that will be talked about at length.
From the digital strategy team at Zinkdo by Adsmurai, we have analysed the impact of the updates. If you want to know what they are and how they can affect your business, we'll tell you everything you need to know to successfully navigate them!
The first update was released on the 11th of November, just before Black Friday and, as all indications suggest, was specifically designed for these dates with such commercial impact. And the second, released on the 12th of December, seems to correct certain points of the previous one, while at the same time going deeper into new aspects for the coming year.
The coincidence of the two in such a short space of time and at the end of the year has been described by some as a 'double Christmas present'. We believe they have coincided simply because a Core Update, which is a deep update of the search system and results, usually takes about 14 days to implement. If we do the maths, we deduce that they were launched one after the other, without forgetting the SPAM update that Google launched after these two Core Updates.
A large number of updates have been released this year: the Core update in March (the rigorous update at the beginning of the year), the SPAM update in March and the second SPAM update in June. These were followed by the turbulent Core Update in August, culminating in the Core Update in November and now the Core Update in December. And to top it all off, the SPAM at the end of the year. In other words, a whole new situation.
For Google's official list of updates and their status, please see Google's list of updates.
Case study of an e-commerce project in the retail sector
A Google algorithm update is a change to the criteria Google uses to rank and sort web pages in its search results. These updates can be minor in terms of impact, tweaking specific aspects or fixing problems. They can also be larger, more in-depth updates known as core updates.
Core updates, unlike the others, involve significant changes to the core of Google's algorithm. Therefore, it is important to understand that Core Updates affect multiple ranking factors and can significantly change the positions of websites in search results. From Google's perspective, these updates aim to improve the quality and relevance of results when a user performs a search.
These updates aim to penalise sites that use deceptive practices or try to manipulate the algorithm to improve their ranking, and reward those that provide quality content and follow Google's guidelines.
Some of the practices that a spam update seeks to combat include AI-generated content, on-page keyword abuse, linking from other low-quality sites, but also duplicate content (which can occur due to technical or quality issues rather than intentionally).
Finally, the SPAM Update will review the bad practices that many sites are unknowingly engaging in because the technical environment is not well thought out.
In situations like this, it is important to remember that when an update is discussed, it is not because a bunch of SEOs are speculating.
On the contrary, Google provides detailed information about its updates and advice on best practices via its Search Centre. Here are the official links to check the status and source of each update:
There are Update Radars, analysis panels offered by digital agencies through their data studies. Each day, you can see the degree of instability or change in the Google results compared to the previous days.
These graphs show the evolution of the search results based on the daily data of all the domains indexed in Google, so that we can see if the release of an update causes changes or not.
There are many of them, such as Sistrix's Google Update Radar, which is well known in the industry for its data-driven analysis of both very large and small sites.
When consulting these radars, we have to bear in mind that each country has its own situation, while the data also changes per device. A B2B search from a computer is not the same as a B2C search from a smartphone, and Google is well aware of this.
At the same time, Google's results are made up of many formats, not just the list of websites ranked from 1 to 10: shopping product snippets, platform videos, featured images or local search, among others.
In addition to the analytics dashboards mentioned above, it is always a good idea to keep track of the valuable keywords a site was ranking for before and after the update. Similarly, identifying which pages have experienced changes in performance can give us many clues as to how the update has affected them.
In other words, if we are a clothing store that sells women's dresses and we know that this was a product or search that attracted a lot of traffic or was important to the business, the first thing we would do is run this search on Google and see if there have been any changes.
In the same way, to assess how an update might have affected us, it is essential to carry out data analysis using Google's two basic tools: Google Analytics and Google Search Console. On both platforms we can see the fluctuations in organic visits and page performance.
Observing any significant fluctuations in these metrics before and after the date of the update will help us to identify possible impacts and begin to develop a possible plan for a crash or improvement, as the case may be. We should always remember that Google analyses factors such as content quality, brand relevance and user experience on the page.
The 11 November update focused on improving the quality of search results by prioritising useful and relevant content for commercial users. Ranking volatility has been observed, particularly on transactional or product pages, affecting a range of sectors from e-commerce to news sites and informational blogs. Sites with poor quality content or outdated SEO practices will see their rankings drop.
The 12 December update reinforces Google's commitment to content quality and user experience. Although the exact details have yet to be officially released and we are still very close to the 'roll out' period, it is expected that sites that offer valuable, well-structured content and follow Google's guidelines outlined in 2024 will see significant improvements in their rankings. It is important to keep up to date with these changes and adapt your SEO strategies accordingly.
It acts as an applied review of the two previous Google Core updates. Based on the new guidelines defined in those two updates, Google will review for abusive use of SEO strategies or websites with technical problems that generate excessive or unfocused pages, making them difficult for search engines to crawl.
Radar de actualizaciones en Google, de Sistrix
The retail trade sector is one of the most volatile sectors in this type of update. Since the November update, it has experienced significant volatility. Online shops with technical problems in terms of readability, user navigation or poor performance may have seen their rankings drop. On the other hand, those that have invested in rich content strategies, such as detailed shopping guides and useful comparison shopping, have been rewarded. In addition, factors such as user experience on mobile devices and page load speed have become more relevant, highlighting the importance of strong technical optimisation to compete in this highly dynamic sector
Another very important sector when there is a Google update, such as the Core update in December, is the healthcare sector. The pharmaceutical sector, which is already under close scrutiny by Google's health-related updates (E-A-T: Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness), has also felt the impact of these changes. Online pharmacy websites and medical information portals will be required to clearly and transparently demonstrate their track record, regulations, accreditation, human resources and content expertise.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to understand a healthcare website that does not have an 'About Us' page where you can see the company, the people behind it, the research it has done, or the regulations and certifications it is associated with. In the same way, it is increasingly important that a blog post is signed by a real person to whom the content is attributed, and that this is visible in the text itself.
Updates have favoured platforms that provide accurate information, written by accredited experts and backed by reliable sources. In addition, easy access to critical data, such as dosages or drug warnings, has become a key differentiator in this space.
In the end, we tried to answer the million dollar question: what can we do when we live in a scenario of such important updates in Google, so that our SEO is not affected or so that we can improve it. Here is a short list of recommendations:
With the recent updates to Google's algorithm, and considering that this search engine represents practically the entire market share in Spain, it is more than clear that all those brands that want to reach their users organically will need a positioning strategy.
All these changes, added to the growing competitiveness in most sectors, could represent a great opportunity for growth for all those brands that are not yet working on SEO. And, in this 2025, to boost the growth of their market through this channel that has so much to contribute.
If you are part of a company that wants to connect organically with its users, do not hesitate to contact us and we will help you position your brand against your biggest competitors.