What to Do if Your Search Engine Results (SEO) Has Been Impacted by The December 2024 Google Updates

Dec 2024 Google Core and Spam Updates – The December 2024 Google updates have created a lot of volatility in the SERPs. The core update has hit a lot of people, and not a few people have been hit by the following spam update.

This update was more volatile than the previous update in November, meaning many websites experienced shifts in their positions on search results pages.

Websites that align well with Google’s updated criteria for quality content and user experience likely saw improvements in their rankings, while others may have experienced declines.

The spam update aimed to clean up search results by targeting low-quality, spammy content. This means that websites employing spammy tactics or hosting low-quality content might have seen a drop in their visibility on SERPs.

We definitely spotted web pages declining who clearly overused A.I. content to write short, spammy articles of low quality and very little value added content.

Let’s face it – Google has been telling us all for some time to write good content, focus on user intent, avoid spammy or unhelpful content, and to write content within your own domain of expertise. This update has created a lot of volatility in the SEO world. But you can get it won’t be the last, so why not focus on fixing your content now?

What To Do If You Lost Rankings in Search Engine Results from the Dec 2024 Google Core and Spam Updates

If you’ve experienced a drop in rankings following the recent Google updates, the first thing to do is not panic. Volatility in search results is not new. We have seen our own content go down many times over the years. It happens. If this is your first time, it can be unnerving, but panic won’t help.

When your content declines in search results (SERPS), you need to get to work figuring out what it is about your existing content that caused your decline, clean it up, and then add new content based on Google’s Guidelines.

PRO TIP – Often if you wait a week or two, search engine results move back up once a Google Update settles a little.

Here are some steps you can take to potentially recover from adverse effects of the latest Google Update:

1. Analyze the Impact: Use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to identify which pages have lost rankings and traffic. Look for patterns or specific keywords that have been affected.
2. Review Content Quality: Ensure your content is high-quality, relevant, and provides value to users. Update outdated information, improve readability, and ensure your content answers user queries effectively.
3. Enhance E-A-T: Focus on Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Ensure your content is written by knowledgeable authors, backed by credible sources, and includes author bios and contact information.
4. Check for Technical Issues: Look for any technical SEO issues like broken links, crawl errors, or duplicate content that might be affecting your site’s performance.
5. Improve Backlink Profile: Analyze your backlink profile and disavow any low-quality or spammy links. Aim to build high-quality, relevant backlinks from authoritative sites.
6. Monitor Competitors: See what your competitors are doing differently. Analyze their content, keywords, and strategies to identify areas where you can improve.

By focusing on these areas, you can work towards regaining and improving your rankings in the search engine results.

Content Recovery Plan for SEO and Rankings

If your content has seen a drop in rankings due to recent Google algorithm updates, follow this structured recovery plan to address the potential issues and improve performance:

1. Analyze the Impact

Objective: Understand where you’ve been affected.

• Use Google Analytics to evaluate which pages experienced drops in traffic and which keywords lost rankings.
• Identify patterns (e.g., specific topics, content types, or market segments) that may have been impacted.
• Use Google Search Console to check for search performance metrics and any manual penalties or indexing issues.
• Compare your rankings and traffic metrics pre-update vs. post-update for a clear understanding of the impact.

Actionable Task:

• Create a spreadsheet to document affected pages, lost keywords, ranking drops, and associated traffic decline.
• Focus on prioritizing high-impact pages.

2. Review and Improve Content Quality

Objective: Ensure your content meets Google’s quality standards.

• Examine if your content addresses user intent comprehensively.
• Update outdated or irrelevant information to keep it fresh – or – just remove it. It is hard to make yourself take down content you’ve worked hard to write, but sometimes you have to do it.
• Structure your content with clear headings, bullet points, and subheadings to make it easy to read.
• Provide actionable insights and ensure your tone aligns with the target audience.
• Avoid keyword stuffing; instead, naturally incorporate related terms and synonyms.

Actionable Task:

• Audit affected content using  to see what competitors are doing better.
• Write long-form, value-packed content (or improve existing content) that answers user queries thoroughly – but remember, just adding more words doesn’t make the content better. Try to write content in a way that is helpful to the person reading it.
• According to Search Engine Land: “the average content length of each of the top 10 results was more than 2,000 words. The average number of words for the content in the #1 spot was 2,416. For the #10 spot, the average number of words was 2,032.”

One thing we want to say is that among our clients who experienced the most disruptions in their Search Engine Rankings, one thing we saw repeatedly is that they often had low quality content on their news feed or blog posts. A lot of that content appeared to be A.I. generated content that didn’t add much insight or value. They were what we might call “fluff” or “puff pieces.”

Remember that when you are writing or producing video content, make sure it solves a problem, or informs people in an actionable way, and is within your domain of expertise.

How Do You Produce High Quality Content?

We have an entire blog post about that to help you out here: https://www.staywilddigital.com/how-to-write-content-for-websites/

3. Optimize User Experience (UX)

Objective: Ensure your site is user-friendly and easy to access.

• Ensure mobile responsiveness; test how your website appears on different devices and adjust as needed.
• Simplify navigation to make it easier for users to find essential information quickly.
• Add multimedia like images, infographics, and videos for engagement – but optimize them to prevent slow loading.

Actionable Task:

• Fix any layout shifts or poor design elements that affect your core web vitals.
• Avoid intrusive pop-ups and ads that disrupt the user experience.

4. Enhance E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)

Objective: Build credibility and authority on your site.

• Link content to authoritative sources or references (e.g., studies, whitepapers).
• For sensitive topics (e.g., health, finance), ensure your content is authored by professionals or industry experts with credentials.
• Update your “About Us” page and include clear author bios, credentials, or professional achievements.

Actionable Task:

• Add customer reviews/testimonials to establish trustworthiness.
• Regularly audit reviews, comments, and user-generated content to remove anything that may harm trust.

5. Check for Technical SEO Issues

Objective: Address hidden barriers preventing your page from ranking well.

• Conduct a complete website crawl using tools like Screaming Frog SEO Spider for broken links, duplicate content, or crawl errors.
• Make sure your XML sitemap is updated and submitted to Google.
• Check your robots.txt file for incorrect rules that might block important pages.
• Eliminate duplicate metadata, thin content, and other structural issues.

Actionable Task:

• Prioritize fixing critical errors flagged in Search Console like “404 errors” or “indexing issues.”
• Use structured data (schema) to help Google understand your page content better.

6. Improve Backlink Profile

Objective: Strengthen and clean up your website’s authority.

• Examine your backlink profile using tools like Moz Link Explorer or Ahrefs.
• Identify and remove toxic/spammy links by submitting a disavow file to Google.
• Focus on building high-quality links through strategies like guest blogging, partnerships, or outreach campaigns.

Actionable Task:

• Reach out to authoritative websites to secure backlinks for your improved or newly published content.
• Leverage PR and content marketing to create shareable resources that gain natural links.

7. Monitor Competitors

Objective: Learn and adapt from competitors who may have benefited from the algorithm update.

• Use competitor analysis tools like SEMrush or SpyFu to understand what ranks well post-update.
• Pay attention to competitors’ keyword focus, page structures, content length, and multimedia use.

Actionable Task:

• Identify five competitors in your niche whose traffic and rankings have improved, and emulate their best practices while staying original.

At Stay Wild Digital, we do this a lot. We are always watching search engine rankings to see who is doing well and who is on their way down. Then we analyze what is consistent among those on their way up and work to course correct our content and its presentation.

You can learn a lot about what types of content and presentation is doing well by simply seeing who is going up in search engine rankings and who is going down.

8. Stay Updated with Google’s Guidelines

Objective: Keep your SEO strategy aligned with Google’s best practices.

• Regularly check for updates on Google’s Search Central Blog for hints about algorithm changes.
• Stay informed about updates related to core and spam algorithms to anticipate future impacts.

Actionable Task:

• Subscribe to SEO publications, follow credible industry experts, and participate in forums to stay ahead.
• Conduct regular bi-monthly audits of your site to ensure compliance with Google standards.

Summary – Dec 2024 Google Core and Spam Updates

Dec 2024 Google Core and Spam Updates – Recovering rankings after a Google update can take time, so be patient and persistent. Focus on gradual improvements and aim to prioritize your users’ needs, as this aligns closely with Google’s mission. By analyzing issues, staying proactive, and refining your content and website, you can regain your visibility and even achieve better rankings than before.

Remember – don’t panic. Focus on figuring out what it is about your content that did not agree with the latest Google Updates. Focus on high quality content that is helpful to the end user and is within your domain of expertise.

When you re writing content, remember to think about how thorough you have been. Have you told everyone everything you know.

Lastly, from our own experience, a lot of people whose content was massively impacted by the latest update had a lot of short length, A.I. written articles that weren’t great and weren’t that helpful. Write good stuff and publish good stuff and you should quickly find yourself back on your way to the top of search engine results.