Google December 2020 Core Algorithm Update
Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2024 7:18 am
If your site's organic traffic and/or positions have decreased or increased as of early December, the culprit is most likely Google's 4th core algorithm update of 2020, which we have been saying is imminent for a while.
I've always said these.
In fact, Google typically makes at least 4 such large-scale algorithm updates per year, and if an update doesn’t directly impact websites in a particular category (e.g. healthcare sites), it can sometimes be a non-news event in the SEO community.
However, this update was awaited with some curiosity and job seekers database fear, as Google had not released any algorithm updates for almost 7 months since May 2020. In fact, we can say that it was not expected, almost everyone in the SEO community seemed sure that Google would leave the update to 2021 this time. This year was already a year when Google had serious indexing problems (indexing glitches), especially on the mobile side, and it was thought that this was partly why it suspended the 4th core algorithm update of 2020.
The update actually came about with the announcement made by Google's search unit on Twitter on December 3, 2020. Starting from the first day of December, position fluctuations began to be seen on Google search results pages (SERPs), but they were not serious enough to be attributed to the update.
Google has also stated that, as with every core algorithm update, it may take a week or two for the results of the update to become permanent. We often refer to this as the time it takes for the update to settle, during which time you may see sudden increases or decreases in your site's position, or even see certain pages drop out of the index for a very short time.
This is actually the reason why pages that have experienced a decline during this period are not intervened before 2 weeks have passed since the update. For example, in the May 2020 update, various SEO tools reported that the activity in the SERP continued between May 4 and May 18.
This time, the situation is a little different. Those affected by the update say that the activity started 1-2 days before the update, and that they experienced an instant change in organic traffic and position on the day the update was released. In fact, there are even those who say that they lost or gained 30% to 60% of their traffic immediately after the update. Normally, this process would also take around 1-2 weeks.
This situation was also reflected in SEO tools that track SERPs, you can see in the tables below that SERP fluctuations increased suddenly, especially on December 4th.
Just when we thought the full update was over in a short time, we started to see serious SERP fluctuation increases in tracking tools again as of December 10th.
I've always said these.
In fact, Google typically makes at least 4 such large-scale algorithm updates per year, and if an update doesn’t directly impact websites in a particular category (e.g. healthcare sites), it can sometimes be a non-news event in the SEO community.
However, this update was awaited with some curiosity and job seekers database fear, as Google had not released any algorithm updates for almost 7 months since May 2020. In fact, we can say that it was not expected, almost everyone in the SEO community seemed sure that Google would leave the update to 2021 this time. This year was already a year when Google had serious indexing problems (indexing glitches), especially on the mobile side, and it was thought that this was partly why it suspended the 4th core algorithm update of 2020.
The update actually came about with the announcement made by Google's search unit on Twitter on December 3, 2020. Starting from the first day of December, position fluctuations began to be seen on Google search results pages (SERPs), but they were not serious enough to be attributed to the update.
Google has also stated that, as with every core algorithm update, it may take a week or two for the results of the update to become permanent. We often refer to this as the time it takes for the update to settle, during which time you may see sudden increases or decreases in your site's position, or even see certain pages drop out of the index for a very short time.
This is actually the reason why pages that have experienced a decline during this period are not intervened before 2 weeks have passed since the update. For example, in the May 2020 update, various SEO tools reported that the activity in the SERP continued between May 4 and May 18.
This time, the situation is a little different. Those affected by the update say that the activity started 1-2 days before the update, and that they experienced an instant change in organic traffic and position on the day the update was released. In fact, there are even those who say that they lost or gained 30% to 60% of their traffic immediately after the update. Normally, this process would also take around 1-2 weeks.
This situation was also reflected in SEO tools that track SERPs, you can see in the tables below that SERP fluctuations increased suddenly, especially on December 4th.
Just when we thought the full update was over in a short time, we started to see serious SERP fluctuation increases in tracking tools again as of December 10th.