
SEO marketers should stay tuned into Google’s core updates. These change how marketers engage with search engines and, in turn, social media platforms. Now Google is ending the year with the December 2024 core update – here’s how you can prepare for it.
The November 2024 Core Update
Just a week before this December update, its November counterpart finished rolling out. It’s unusual to get another one so soon, but the December update shouldn’t contradict changes made in November. So, as a marketer, you can use that last update to see where Google is headed.
That November update was all about people-friendliness and intent – a longstanding mission at Google. Using sophisticated tools, they try to determine the intent behind everything posted online. For example, Google search knows the difference between a news article site, a retail site, and an iGaming site based on words used and page structure. So, if a user searches for online casino UK, they will get actual casinos in Britain instead of blogs that use similar keywords. This also works for phrases, so if a search contains the words bet slots, Google rightly assumes the user is using the verb ‘bet’ as an indication of intent. Then, to reflect that intention, it’s believed that sites hosting games are given priority, like slots inspired by the shrewd board game Monopoly.
So, it’s generally a good idea to get into the head of your ideal customer, and making content based on user intent should play well with Google’s algorithm for the long term. Helpful, people-first content has been Google’s focus for more than a decade now, and that isn’t going to change anytime soon.
The December 2024 Core Update
Google’s core updates take approximately two weeks to roll out – and even longer to affect the SEO landscape. When an update first rolls out, there isn’t much guidance on what marketers can do.
Likewise, Google doesn’t explain the specific details of core updates unless they are adding a whole new system. If this December update was making a big change, Google would have made it known already.
How to Prepare Content for the December 2024 Core Update
With that in mind, it would seem the December core update will be more of the same. To make content for it, you should think in terms of broader trends. Without specifics, we already know that the December update should play nicely with content that survived the November, August, and game-changing March 2024 core updates.
In the coming months, you’ll start to see other SEO experts arrive at more specific ways to cater to this update. By that time, if you believe the core update has hit your content negatively, you should remember that outright deletion is a last resort. There are many ways to repurpose content so that it becomes more helpful to the user and, in time, performs well with Google’s algorithms too.
Repurposing content is even easier when you work on social media because you can spread the same material across multiple platforms, through different mediums like the written word and video. If you prioritize people-first content made with your customer’s intent in mind, you should survive core updates for the foreseeable future.